Devil You Know
by Surarrin
Summary: My day had started on a down note. First Elaine had been sick, then I found out my mentor wanted to shove me in a straitjacket. It shouldn't have been a surprise when I died. But, nothing could have prepared me for my life being saved by a devil—or becoming one myself. Still, the magical girl was the biggest surprise.
1. Chapter 1

—~—

When I'd met Elaine we'd both been twelve. We were bright and stubborn and there had been a scarce time that we hadn't driven each other crazy. More than that we'd been the best of friends.

We did everything together. We spoke of our dreams of the future. Whenever we needed a shoulder to cry on the other was there. We both found school to be an exercise in tedium—especially when compared to our actual home work.

How important was trigonometry when compared with learning how to harness the cosmic forces of creation itself? Compared to learning to conjure fire the public school systems lessons were only nominally more difficult than sharpening a pencil.

It had been difficult to relate to other kids in many ways. It was as simple as being interested in different things. Our magical talents had also begun to make television increasingly difficulty to watch and to my greatest regret video games were borderline impossibilities.

It's funny how a simple thing such as skipping science class can change your whole life.

I hadn't let the school know that I was leaving. If I had they'd have insisted that I stay like a good boy and learn how to dissect frogs. Don't get me wrong. I was interested but I was more worried about Elaine. She'd had a fever last night and stayed home.

The gates were locked and the path was barred, but what were fences for if not to jump over them? I slipped behind the gymnasium and scaled the chain link fence with a bit more effort than I would have admitted.

"Alley-oop!" I called out as I swooped over the fence and landed in a light crouch on the grass. I stood up and turned towards the street and began to make my way along the border of the school. I made no attempts to hide as I walked along—I was beyond the reach of such things as 'school' and more importantly all the teachers were in their classrooms teaching class.

I shouldered my bag and began to hum an out of tune song I'd heard on the walk to school. Holding a tune was unfortunately not one of my many talents.

It didn't last long and soon enough I fell silent as I walked. A frown touched my lips as I thought about Elaine. She'd been getting sicker over the past few days and become sick enough that she'd stayed home. Even Justin had insisted that she stay home.

As far as I was aware she'd never been sick before. Neither had I for the matter. Justin's explanation when we asked had boiled down to 'its magic' and he'd never elaborated. So what did it mean if Elaine had been sick? It could have been a new magic eating virus, or a super virus!

I couldn't help but speed up my walk at the thought of Elaine—_My_ Elaine being sick. I had to be there for her, it was my responsibility as her boyfriend wasn't it? That I could potentially get sick myself and avoid the utter chore of going to school was a potential side effect that had no benefit whatsoever.

I followed the long walked path from the school through the shopping square and resisted the urge to stop by the grocery store and get a chocolate or two. I didn't have the money to spare. With summer all but a distant memory my pockets were empty and Justin refused to give money to me for something as frivolous as chocolate. Little did he know that I knew where his secret stash was. I was saving the knowledge for the future to throw in his face the utter hypocrisy of having a stash of chocolate and denying that same right to others.

As I passed by the video arcade I noticed that someone was standing out the front. I almost faltered in my step as I caught the person's eyes. She—and she was definitely a she was a young girl with the most outrageously blue hair I'd ever seen outside of television. More than that—she wore a strange sort of costume that seemed more in place in one of those Japanese animations that had begun to become popular.

The girl turned towards me and I noted in the back of my mind that her eyes were the same colour as her hair. The strange costume that she wore was a bit more obvious from the front. She wore a blue vest over a frilly white blouse, with a sort-of-tie that had a large golden heart on the front. Oh and the skirt, a silky powder blue number that ended a foot above her knees, leaving a sliver of a gap showing her milky thighs before two long stockings covered the rest of her legs.

It took me a few moments to realize that I had been checking her out, and more than that from the amused look on her face she was very much aware.

"Hi there!" she said brightly and took five long steps towards me, just before I would have passed her.

"Hi yourself," I said to her, smiling. "You new in town?"

Her eyes glimmered with amusement. "The newest! Have a flyer!" she said brightly, offering one of the many in her arms to me. She winked at me and turned away, walking back towards the arcade.

I stared after her for a few seconds, my tongue tied. I gave a brief shake of my head and continued walking. As I did I lifted the flyer up.

"Your wish will be granted," I read aloud to myself and furrowed my brow as my eyes swept over the paper. My eyes briefly lingered on the middle of it where a strange intricate glyph sat. It took me a moment to process what I was seeing before I realized it was just gibberish and wasn't any sort of magical formulae that I'd seen before in my lessons.

I chuckled and turned it over a few times to look for other details but found none. It was probably for a new video game that had been brought in.

The thought brought a scowl to my lips and I stuffed the flyer into my pocket. Yet another game I wasn't ever going to be able to play. I glanced at the arcade for a moment before looking away and continuing on my way home.

It was a long familiar walk, even in the early afternoon. It took me the better part of half an hour to arrive at the gates of my home. I pushed the wooden picket gate open and stepped onto the property. As I did a sort of nervousness began to flood my body, an agitation that made me uneasy in my own skin. A sort of energy seemed to hang in the air, thick and almost oily.

I shook off my sudden hesitation and walked to the front door, unlocking it and heading inside. "I'm home," I called out as I walked through the entryway and into the lounge room.

As I entered I noticed Elaine sitting on the couch. The calm expression on her face took me back for a moment, and then I noticed other small things that caused my expression to devolve into a frown—her posture was too rigid and straight, she only ever sat like that when she was being sarcastic.

As I stared at her I realized something was terribly wrong. She wasn't even aware I was standing there. "..Elaine?" I spoke after a moment and took a step towards the lounge.

It was then that Justin appeared in the kitchen doorway, on the other side of Elaine, and stood there for a moment, looking at me, his expression calm and remote.

"You skipped class again." He sighed. "I probably should have seen that coming."

"What's going on here?" I demanded, my voice high and squeaky with fear. "What have you done?"

Justin walked forwards to the couch and stood over by Elaine. Elaine's eyes turned towards me for the first time and they both stared at me for a long moment. I couldn't comprehend their expressions at all. "I'm making plans, Harry," he said in a steady, quiet voice. "I need people I can trust with me."

"Trust?" I echoed. His words made no sense to me. They didn't apply to the current situation at all. I couldn't see how they made sense at all or how they'd ever make sense. I looked between Elaine and Justin again, looking for some kind of answer, or sign that this was just one gigantic practical joke that I hadn't gotten. Their expressions gave away nothing. That was when my eyes fell to the coffee table and to the pristine white object that was lying next to my dog-eared paperback copy of The Hobbit.

A straitjacket.

There was a something awfully quiet and calmly sinister about the congruence. I just stared for a long moment, and then felt the bottom of my stomach erode away as I finally understood, for the first, awful time, what my instincts had been screaming at me from the moment I opened the gate: I was in danger. That my rescuer, teacher, my guardian meant to do me harm.

Tears blurred my vision and I couldn't help but ask him, in a quiet, lost and very confused voice, "Why?"

Justin remained calm and silent for a moment, before he spoke very precisely. "You do not have the knowledge that you need to understand, boy. You do not yet, but you will in time."

"Y-you can't do this," I whispered, my voice hoarse. "N-not you. You save me—saved us."

"And I still am," Justin said. "Sit down next to Elaine, Harry."

Elaine spoke, her voice a quiet, monotone. "Sit down next to me, Harry." She patted the spot next to her on the couch in a faint movement of her hand.

"Elaine…" I stared at her in shock and couldn't help but take a step back.

Something in the back of my mind screamed at me that I was in danger. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Justin move and felt the subtle sharp build-up of energy coming from him. I was too close to avoid it, so I didn't try. I lunged backwards and brought my hand up in a sweeping motion as I did, summoning my own will power and forming it into a shield. Rather than trying to impose the shield between us, I formed it behind me in a large almost sail-like construct.

The force of the blow hit me and blew into the shield, the force caught on it like a strong wind and sending me flying through the front window.

My eyes shut tight and I felt the window briefly impact on the shield before the enormous sound of shattering glass and wood filled my ears. I held in a gasp of pain as the hot sting of an uncountable number of tiny cuts appeared on my uncovered skin as the bits of flying glass and wood showered around me.

I hit the ground rolling and couldn't help but yelp as the glass that had been pushed to the grass by my shield dug into my body. I didn't stop rolling and came up sprinting the moment I could.

I looked over my shoulder as I ran out the gate and saw Justin standing in the broken window. "Boy!" Justin said, his voice booming loudly. His eyes were colder, more furious than I had ever seen them. "You are here with me—" he paused for a moment, "—with Elaine. Or you are nowhere! If you don't come back here right now you are _dead_ to me."

My heart thudded in my chest rapidly and I forced my legs to move faster, taking me onto the street. He may have said it metaphorically, but I knew that he had meant it literally.

I ran.

If I had stayed I knew he meant to render me helpless. There was no happy ending for me back there anymore. Justin and Elaine had revealed their true colours. I reached up and wiped away the tears that blurred my vision and held my teeth grinding against each other as I exhaled through my nose.

I was _furious_.

I had never been this angry before in my life.

How dare he—how dare they?!

I was beyond livid.

I knew that if I went back, I could fight him. I could rain down an ungodly firestorm and make them rue the day they ever decided to betray me. But, I knew I couldn't win — not against the man who had taught me everything I knew about magic.

My anger burned like molten hot magma through my veins. I kept running and running and as I did my mind worked furiously.

I couldn't call the cops. What would I tell them? That Justin was a mad wizard— they'd write me off as a nutcase without hesitation—or worse, they'd take me back to him and it would be game over.

"Boy!" Justin's voice roared, now more openly filled with rage. "Boy!"

He didn't need to say anything more. The sheer fury in that one word said it all. The man who had given me a home, had saved me from the orphanage and a pointless life was going to kill me.

I felt a stabbing pain in my chest that stole strength from my legs. It hurt—it hurt so much that I couldn't help but think that he already had. I put my head down and ran faster. The world became a blur as my tears continued to run.

As I ran, and the street vanished into the background I couldn't help but grit my teeth and breathe harder.

This wasn't over. I knew that Justin could find me no matter where I ran. He'd already taught both Elaine and I how to cast tracking spells. Everything I had in this world was back at the house. He had the pick of the litter for things that could lead him to me. No matter where I ran he'd come. No matter how well I hid it wouldn't be enough.

My mind flashed back to the pristine white straitjacket.

I hadn't escaped it yet. I had only delayed it.

My thoughts briefly flashed to Elaine and the utter disinterest she had displayed. She had been in on it from the start had she—had she ever even loved me? Was it all just a ploy from the start to keep me obedient? Give the orphan boy a cute girl to keep him distracted, had that been Justin's plan from the beginning?

I had thought we'd been clever, hiding our relationship from him, but had he been the one to encourage Elaine to be with me from the very start?

I couldn't help but laugh at the irony. Elaine and I had taken up running to 'hide' our activities from Justin. We had done actual running as well to hide the truth from him. The fruits of our labour, of that lie we'd used to hide our trysts were saving me.

As I ran my strides slowed but became longer, steadier, more machinelike. It felt almost natural as my limbs and body moved on instinct, one foot falling after the other, again and again.

I lost track of time as I ran. I poured everything in me, all the anger and seething fury into my muscles until they ached.

When I finally stopped, the terror had faded, if not the heartache. I found myself in an entirely unexpected position. I had no idea what to do. I stood there on the side of the road. What _was_ I supposed to do? My entire world had been back at that house with Justin and Elaine.

I breathed in deeply and exhaled.

"I should have known," I muttered to myself. No one in my life had gone an inch out of their way to look out for me once my parents were gone. Justin's generosity, even seasoned with the demands of studying magic, had been too good to be true. I should have known it.

And Elaine. A sharp stab of pain went through my chest. She'd just sat there while he'd been doing whatever he was going to do. She hadn't tried to warn me, hadn't tried to stop him. She'd just sat there. The sheer uncaring coldness of the action stung me more than the betrayal. Elaine was anything but cold. When she was pissed at me she was _pissed_ at me. I'd never known her to be anything but passionate—or had it all been a lie?

I had never known anyone in my life I loved as much as I loved Elaine. Had it even ever meant anything to her?

I shook my head in disgust at myself.

I should have known that she was too good to be true.

I took a few wobbling steps off the footpath and slumped down against a fence on the grass. I drew my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.

And I cried.

I was tired, and cold and my chest ached with the pain of loss.

I could never go back home.

My life had been destroyed—it had been fake and it had never been real but it had been _mine_ it was all I had.

I sat there for a while brooding before I began to feel the aches and pain in my chest subside ever so slightly.

I reached up and wiped my eyes and nose on the sleeves of my jacket. A few hours ago I would have never done such a thing, it was too much of a hassle to clean. I stared down at the mucus before shaking my head ferociously.

I was still in danger.

I had to think.

I had no means of travel, no money and nowhere to go.

What I did have was my new driver's license, a few dollars in my pocket and the clothes on my back.

A gentle breeze passed by and I felt a light shiver go through me. It was mid-November and my school jacket wasn't going to be enough to keep me warm once the sun had fully set; it was already getting dark and the street lights had begun to flicker on.

My stomach rumbled.

I was also starving, apparently. I hadn't really eaten since morning and worst still I'd spent the last hour running.

I was famished.

I went over my immediate list of problems.

I needed shelter. I needed food. I needed to find somewhere safe to hide from Justin until I could figure out how I was going to fight back—and the first step towards all of that was money. I needed money and I needed it fast.

My eyes swept down the street and I took note of the houses along it. I could break in to one of them, try and find money. But no one ever kept money in their homes anymore, and worst still it was around the time people started coming home.

Down the end of the street a gas station's large sign hung like a gigantic arrow. Scratch that it _was_ a gigantic arrow. It was like a sign from whatever demented god was watching over me.

I exhaled deeply. "It's alright Harry," I said to myself. "What's the harm in a little robbery?" I pushed myself back onto my feet and began to walk towards the convenience store.

It occurred to me how easily I had accepted it as a course of action, and that realization was rationalized away just as quickly. I stared to play over how it went down in movies in my head.

I unzipped my jacket and tugged it off, before beginning to tear off the patches that were on it; I didn't want to make it easy for them to track me down off descriptions and knowing what school I went to was. I tossed the patches from my jacket to the side and set my jacket down, before I pulled my sweat-soaked T-shirt off. I pulled my jacket back on and zipped the front up, before tying the musky shirt around my face in a sort of makeshift balaclava.

It stunk, but it was only temporary. After I got the money I'd make my way to the other side of town and ditch my clothes and maybe break into a barber shop and shave my head. That would buy me some time.

My mind kept playing over what I needed to do, even as I began to walk towards the gas station. As I got closer I realized I was lacking a 'weapon' which to use to rob the store. I glanced around and found myself staring at a trash can that looked to be fairly full. I scavenged in it briefly, and found a paper sack. I emptied it of the leftovers it contained and stuck my right hand in it.

"...I fucking hate you Justin," I muttered to myself as I felt the grime and filthy of the leftovers inside the bag smear over my hand.

As I walked closer to the gas station I noticed the glowing light of the streetlamps outside the shop. I lifted my hand up and sent a quick hex at them. I say hex, but in reality it was really just a bolt of lazily directed magical energy.

The two streetlamps over the parking lot flickered and died; they never stood a chance.

Learning and doing proper magic was hard, but it after a while it became easy to do the small things with a bit of effort. As I had become frustratingly aware, one of my many talents was wrecking technology. It was my super power. Anything with enough wiring and computer chips is fair game for low level stuff, but for simple things like streetlamps it needed a bit more oomph.

I hit the lights outside the store next, and the two security cameras. As I got closer and closer I found myself becoming increasingly nervous and accidentally blew out the refrigerating unit stuck out the front that was filled with ice as well as the security camera that I had intended.

The only lighting left in the place by the time I was done came from a pinball machine and a couple of aging arcade video games. They'd no doubt be dead before I was done here as well.

I let out a slow breath and slammed my foot against the doors, blowing them open and stepping through in a sort-of crouch, so that there wouldn't be anyway to compare my height to the marker on the inside of the frame of the door.

I held out my paper-covered right hand like it was a gun—which in a way it was; a magical gun.

I grimaced as the slimey ooze in the bag. I had a feeling it was mayonnaise. I hated mayo.

My eyes swept along the rows of the gas stop before coming to rest on the cashier; a young man with a brown mullet and a Boston T-shirt. I pointed my make-shift 'weapon' at him and said as calmly as I could, "Empty the drawer."

He blinked reddened, watery eyes at me and then his eyes slit down to the paper bag. I felt like groaning and palming my face. If he wasn't high as a kite my name wasn't Harry.

"Empty the drawer or I'll blow your head off!" I shouted at him a bit louder and clearer.

"Huh, dude," the cashier said and I let out a sigh as I smelt the scent of recently burned marijuana. I could literally walk behind and empty the register and he wouldn't bat an eyelash. "Dude, what is … Did you see the lights just…?"

I stared at him for a few moments, before my eyes dipped to the cheap plastic badge that had been stuck to his shirt. His name tag read: STAN.

I stared at him for a few more seconds, before sighing and reaching up and pulling the paper bag off my hand and tossed it to the ground before wiping my hand off on the leg of my pants.

"Yeah man. I think someone was messing with the power box outside," I told Stan very slowly, enunciating as perfectly as I could. "I'll stay here and watch the counter, do you want to go check it? If it's dead won't you get in trouble?"

Stan blinked slowly and stared at me for a long few seconds, before his eyes widened. "O-oh shit man! They'll fire me!"

I had to give him credit. He managed to stumble around the desk and out the store front without tripping over himself. He saved that for the first step past it.

I rolled my eyes and walked around the counter. I stared at it for a moment before I reached and twisted the key that Stan had left in it. The cash drawer sprung open and I found myself confronted with an impressive amount of petty cash and a few bigger notes.

I collected the notes and quickly counted them, muttering as I went along until I was certain that I had the better part of half a grand. I couldn't help but chuckle slightly and pocketed the amount.

I shoved the register closed, and as I did I sensed a sort of movement behind me, an almost subliminal pressure. It was the kind of conscious realization that you experienced while standing in a line—the silent presence of another living being behind you, temporarily intruding on your personal space. But I wasn't standing in a line.

I spun around in a panic, my fist clenched and ready to break on someone's jawbone.

There was no one behind me. I looked both ways and the door to the supply closet was still closed and there wasn't any sort of movement.

And yet, I could still feel the presence behind me, on the back of my neck, closer and more distinct than it had been previously. The more pressing matter, was that there was literally a counter right behind me. There was no way anything could be there, and yet it lingered.

"Run!" said a resonant baritone voice.

I spun and drew up my hand, summoning a surge of force into my palm—and found myself facing the video games. The magical energy in my palm fizzled and died listlessly.

"Run!" repeated the voice from the Sinistar game. "I live! I…am…Sinistar!"

I let out a breath and turned back to the register, just in time to see Stan stumbling back into view. I considered what to do about him, and a moment of inspiration hit me as I noticed the toy guns to the side of the counter.

I reached over and tore one out of its packaging, hiding the discarded plastic and drew the kids gun up, holding it as if it were a real gun. I aimed the plastic toy at Stan as he entered the store.

"How do you fix…" Stan began to say, before he blinked and realized I was standing on the wrong side of the counter. "Hey man, what are you doing? You'll get me in trouble."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and lifted the gun up. "Ka-bang! Ka-bang!" I shouted as I gathered my will and pointed it at a stack of soda bottles that had been piled on one of the shelves.

The spell was just basic kinetic energy, I'd literally thrown baseballs harder than it could hit. It was enough for my purpose for the moment however, and the bottles shattered with a bark of breaking glass and a tinkle of said glass hitting the floor.

"Holy crap!" Stan shouted, his eyes wide and terrified. He flinched down and brought his arms up around his head. "Don't shoot me!"

"I don't intend to shoot you Stan," I told him calmly, licking my lips. "I just want the money, understand?"

"O-okay, okay!" Stan said. "Oh, god. I'm supposed to do whatever you want, right? T-that's what the owners told us, r-right? I'm just supposed to give you the money!"

"I already have the money," I told him calmly. "It's not worth dying over, is it?"

Stan's hands hesitantly came down from over his head and he looked at me. "…G-got that right," he said with a weak laugh. "They're only paying me five dollars an hour."

As Stan spoke I could again feel the insubstantial pressure against the back of my neck, and worst it was increasing. I turned my head and looked behind me, but there was nothing there—nothing I could see, at least. Frowning I looked back at Stan. "Stan no one else is here are they?"

He shook his head in the negative.

I swallowed. What if there _was_ something there? Something that I couldn't see? I chewed on the inside of my cheek and my eyes flickered around the store. Justin had told us—me—about such creatures from the netherworld, especially when I had repeatedly asked. I didn't think he was lying at any rate.

An invisible beast would be the perfect hunter, just the sort of ideal thing to send out after a wayward apprentice you wanted to kill—or have returned home to put on his straitjacket in time for prom.

I let me gaze slip across the store, looking for anything out of the ordinary, a slightly misplaced item, a packet of chips shifting slightly. Eventually my gaze wandered to the reflector mirror that had been installed in the far corner of the shop.

It reflected the dark store perfectly, the rows of products, the shelves, the powered down freezers, the shattered mound of bottles and the growing puddle of soda, Stan crouching on the ground in front of the door.

And the _Thing_ standing just behind him.

It was massive, and I mean _massive_ it was taller and broader than the door was. It was vaguely humanoid—I mean the proportions were all wrong. The shoulders were too wide, the arms too long, the legs crooked and too thick. It was covered in fur, or scales or some scabrous fungal amalgamation of both.

Its eyes were empty, slanted pits of dim violet night.

Everything about it screamed that it was wrong.

I felt my hands begin to shake. Violently. It wouldn't be a lie to say I lost all control of them as the toy gun in my hand slipped from my fingers and clattered against the desk in a not at all convincing sound.

There was a creature that looked like it didn't belong on this side of creation less than eight feet away from me, right behind Stan. My mouth was dry and my throat felt numb. It was every bit as real as Stan, or I, or the floor beneath our feet. Real to every sense except my sight.

It took real effort to glance away from the mirror to Stan.

Nothing. There was nothing there but Stan. The store was completely empty except for us. The door hadn't opened again since Stan had come back in. There was a bell on it. It would have rung had it opened. Did it come in with Stan?

I looked away for a second, and when I looked back it had vanished from behind Stan.

And instead was standing behind me.

And it was smiling.

It had a head whose shape was all but obscured by growths, or lumpy scales, or matted fur, or any other number of grotesque things—or maybe it was just a series of tumors and I was being judgmental?

I considered it for a fraction of a second before I found my eyes dipping further below its glowing purple eyes to its mouth. It was far too wide to be real, filled with teeth too sharp and serrated to belong to anything on this earth. The smile was something out of Lewis Carroll's acid laden nightmares.

My legs felt like they were going to give in at any second. I couldn't seem to breath. I couldn't even move.

Something malicious slithered up my spine and danced in spiteful shivers over the back of my neck. I could sense the thing's hostility—not the hormonal anger of a fellow teenager that I'd needled beyond self-restraint, or Justin's cold, calculated rage. This was something different. Something vaster, something more timeless and deeper.

It was a poisonous hatred, something so vile—so ancient that it felt like it could kill me without any overt action to support it. A hate so virulent and beyond contempt that it manifested itself into a physical sensation that needed nothing to exist, it simply was.

The creature wanted to destroy me. It wanted to hurt me. It wanted to enjoy the process and every inch of torment it could draw out of me. Nothing I could ever do, or say would ever change that irrevocable fact. It was as certain as gravity and the march of time.

It felt far more real than the store we were in—and for a moment far more real than I felt I was. It had no fear. It had no mercy. It was as old and ancient beyond my brains ability to comprehend.

And I was something to be eradicated, preferably in some amusing fashion, and if I proved to be too disappointing for it, I would only break through the thin veneer of that contempt that demanded it consider me nothing more than an ant—and I would be destroyed far more thoroughly than the heaviest hammer, or the sharpest sword.

I felt nauseous. I felt… contaminated, simply by being near it. It wasn't touching me in any real sense of the word, yet by simply being in the same vicinity as it I felt as if it had irrevocably damaged some integral part of who I was. No matter how hard I scrubbed the taint would never wash away.

It leaned down. A forked tongue slithered out from between its horrible shark-tooth maw, and it whispered, in a perfectly low, calm, enunciated, British accent. "What you have just experienced is as close as your mind can come to comprehending my name. How do you do?"

My blood pounded in my ears. I tried to speak. I couldn't. I couldn't form words or make a single sound come out of my mouth. I couldn't move enough air to even make a squeak come out of my throat.

My teeth ground together as the sheer frustration of the situation became unbearable.

I was more than some terrified child.

I was more than some helpless orphan preparing to endure what something vastly older and more powerful than me was preparing to inflict.

I had touched the very forces of Creation and shaped them to my will.

I was a young force of nature.

I had seen things no one else could see.

I had done things that no one else could fathom!

"I-I am fine," I managed to say in a hoarse voice, barely a whisper. I swallowed and gained a bit more courage. "That's a mouthful, I'm a bit busy. D-do you have a nickname?"

Its smile widened.

"Little Morsel, among those whom I have disassembled," it purred, its long forked tongue wrapping lovingly around the last word, "I have been several times been called by the same phrase."

I held in the shiver of fear that crept along the back of my neck. "O-oh, w-what is it?"

"He," purred the thing. "Who Walks Behind."

"He Who Walks Behind?" I said, fighting a losing battle to keep from trembling. "I'm a bit relieved honestly, if you had been a She I'm not sure I would have been able to live with myself." I licked my lips. "Personally I'd stick with the first one. It's much more you."

"Be patient," purred the creature's disembodied voice. "You will understand it before the end."

"Uh, dude?" Stan asked quietly. "Uh… who are you talking to?"

My eyes snapped towards Stan. I had completely forgotten he had been there.

"Tell him," the creature said. "That should be entertaining."

"Get out."

"Uh—"

"Shut up, Stan," I shouted at him. "Get out!"

Stan's wide eyes stared at me in confusion.

In frustration I reached over, picked up a far of peppermint lollies and hurled it at him. It hurt the glass door behind him and shattered it.

"Woah! Dude!" Stan all but screamed. He fell over himself as he tried to comply, literally flinging the door open and diving out to get away. He clambered to his feet and stumbled out into the night.

I turned back to the reflector just in time to feel fire erupt along my spinal cord. I was slammed into the counter beneath me, and my head hit it hard enough that I felt something break—whether it was the counter or my head I couldn't tell. Pain, sickening and harsh flooded through the crack in the front of my skull and I barely kept myself up against the counter.

But I didn't fall. Justin DuMorne had been hard on me. It hadn't ever been this bad—this scary and had never hurt so much before—but then it had never been for real. I grasped the counters edges and forced my fingers to hold on and keep me from haplessly sliding down to the floor.

"Run! Run!" screamed the pinball machine. "I…am… Sinistar!" I noted somewhere in the back of my mind that hadn't been overloaded with main that the voice was disturbingly deep and malicious—distorted and warped. The game's computer was apparently failing. It probably didn't help that I was almost at the point of emotionally shitting myself.

"You think that the inebriated little mortal is going to run to fetch the authorities," purred He Who Walks Behind.

I steeled my nerves as he spoke and pushed myself off the counter and stumbled along the side of it, trying to put some distance between myself and the immaterial assassin that had been sent after me. As I did the world blurred and I barely held myself back from passing out as vertigo set in. I could feel a trickle of blood begin to dribble down my face.

"You believe that if they come running in their automobiles, with their lights and their symbols, that I will flee."

I reached over and steadied myself on a chip stand. I breathed in deeply through my nose and exhaled. My head was on fire and my knees felt like they were going to give, but I was beginning to get through the worst of the pain—that or I had brain damage.

"That must be it," I said as I continued to stumble my way away from the counter. "M-makes perfect sense."

"I assure you," came the creature's bodiless voice, "that we will not be disturbed. I have made certain of it. But it does demonstrate that you possess a certain aptitude for performance under pressure, does it not?"

"Get away from me," I snarled through clenched teeth. "You sound like my guidance counselor." I wiped the blood from one of my eyes. I took a breath and stalked onwards, wobbling only a little. I reached over to a stack of mars bars and tore the wrapper off one. My stomach growled and I tore into the snack.

"What are you doing?" The creatures voice came from across from the far side of the store, near the door.

"M'starving," I mumbled as I swallowed the single bite of chocolate and nougat. "Haven't eaten since morning." I tossed the barely touched candy bar to the ground and let out a breath. "Alright. I guess maybe you are a little scary." I said finally, my eyes sweeping along the vast store and looking for a surface that reflected the creature.

"Neither fear nor pain sway you from your objective. Excellent." Its voice was stilling coming from the same spot. That was good to know. "But there's no knowing the true temper of the blade until it has been tested. Even the strongest-seeming weapon may have hidden flaws. This will be educational for both of us."

I was certain it had been over by the door, which is why it came as a shock to me when something gripped the back of my neck and effortlessly flung me into an end cap of various doughnuts and pastries. I went through it and hit the shelf behind.

It hurt. It hurt so much more than I believed it was possible. Even the love tap against the counter or being hurled through a glass window didn't come close.

The sweet smell of sugar and chocolate filled my nostrils. I had little doubt that my ass was as brown as one of Elaine's attempts at baking with half as much frosting, cream filling and powdered sugar. Despite just having had a bite of the candy bar, my stomach gurgled loudly enough to be heard over the sound of items falling from the shelves here and there.

"All living things must eat." Its voice was unchanged by the violence. What an asshole. "Such a useless scrap of meat contains you," the creature said, falling silent for a brief moment. "It is entirely inconsequential, yet it shapes you, moulds you. Your existence is a series of contradictions."

"But here is a certainty, mortal child: This time, you cannot run."

The hell I couldn't!

Running had served me pretty damn well so far, and I saw no reason to change my policy now. I pushed myself to my feet, careful not to slip on the dozens upon dozens of squashed doughnuts and made a break for the back of the store, away from the presumed direction of my attacker.

I dove behind the far corner of the aisle and pressed my back up against it, panting. I strained my ears for any sign of where it was, before I realized I could just look up at the reflector in the corner.

I immediately regretted the action as something hard, hot and slimy settled around my neck; a noose made of a moist serpent, and just as strong. The reason I regretted looking was that I could see that it was the creatures tongue, poured out of its maw like a pulsating black ribbon.

The creatures tongue jerked me up and off of my feet, a bruising force that threw me into the air and released me almost instantly. I lost sight of it in the mirror as I fell and landed on my ass, hard. I scrambled towards the other aisle on my hands and knees, only to feel another terrible force strike me. A contemptuous kick in the ass, literally.

It drove my forwards into a glass door on a wall of the refrigerated cabinets holding the racks upon racks of chilled drinks. I bounced off the door and landed, dazed, staring for a second at the blood coated large cracks my head had left in the glass. My mouth opened and closed listlessly as I tried to voice a complaint or an utterance of the pain I found myself in.

"No one will save you."

I attempted to move away, my body ached and had barely enough strength to endure that small motion. I made it only far enough to reach the next cabinet and another blow struck me in the chest. I felt something break and knew it was a rib. The strike flung me into the next glass door. My shoulder hit it this time and didn't break the glass, but I felt my arm go next with a pop.

I screamed as the entire arm lit up like a Christmas tree that filled me with an abrupt awareness of white hot pain.

"Child of the Stars. I will unmake you this night."

My head was full of pain and fear. I could sense it getting closer again, coming up behind me—always there. I understood quite well why it had been named He Who Walks Behind. It was always there, where I was weakest, most vulnerable. That was where it would always be. That was the only place it _could_ be.

With that thought came a fresh wave of pain and nausea, but it also brought with it an incessant and virulent determination.

I had to move. I had to do something. The terror felt like lead weights on every inch of my body, sapping my remaining strength and making muscles turn to jelly. I pulled myself to my feet and began a slow, slippery walk down the aisle of cold drinks, careful not to make any sudden moves or 'attempt' to escape. It capitalized on those moments.

"Pathetic," said He Who Walks Behind, growing nearer with every word. "Whimpering, mewling thing. Useless."

I licked my lips and swallowed. "You are a coward," I said.

He Who Walks Behind stopped in his tracks. There was a flickering heartbeat of uncertain surprise in that inevitable presence, and the creature said, "What?"

"I mean, don't get me wrong. You have a face a mother couldn't even love. It makes sense that you never show your face to people," I kept talking, because I knew the moment that I stopped it was going to make me regret it.

"I hear there are some really good plastic surgeons these days. Who knows, they might even be able to do something about that nasty tongue you've got there." I licked my lips.

If I couldn't stop it from coming at my back, then I could always choose where to turn it. "If—" I began before I turned and slammed my back against one of the refrigerators and then again and again until I felt the glass crack.

"It seems I have damaged you too severely." I could practical taste the disappointment on its lips. It brought an immediate panic attack on as the utterance of its name hit me again. The sheer veneer that held it back from ending me was wearing thin.

But then, didn't they always say; if at first you don't try again succeed until—Holy shit maybe I did have brain damage.

Without another thought or word I stumbled to my feet and began to run towards the door, spinning with every step I took until the world was a blur around me. I stumbled against the aisles and sent canned goods and packets of chips flying before I slammed into the door and forced it open.

I fell through the door still spinning, out into the parking lot and fell over, immediately throwing up me barely digested mars bar.

Once I was there, on the ground, I realized that my escape plan did in fact not have a phase two. It hadn't been concerned with anything more than getting me as far as outside of the doors of the gas station.

The lights I had blown in the parking lot had made the area dim when the sun had been setting, but in the small amount of time that I'd been in the store, the sun had truly set. The darkened parking lot was a mass of shadows. The nearest lights were over a hundred yards away and seemed fainter than they should have been, and more orange.

There was a heavy pressure in the air and the faint, faint stench of rot and decay. It was something similar to what I had felt back at my house, but somehow at the same time something far more wrong. The creatures' earlier words rang in my head. Hadn't it said that it had made certain of our privacy? Was it a spell that it had cast?

Stan was still in the parking lot. He was out between the two islands housing the gas stations pumps. There was something wrong. He looked like a man who was trying to run in slow motion. His arms were moving too slowly, his legs bent as if he was sprinting, but his pace was glacial. It was like he was trying to run in a pool filled with jelly.

He was looking over his shoulder at me, and his face was contorted with terror, a horrible mask that hardly looked human in the shadow-haunted parking lot in slow motion. He was more of a caricature than a person.

My first thought was to run towards him. Herd instinct, really. It made sense that there was more safety in numbers against a predator. But this wasn't any predator. If I ran to Stan he would be squashed like a bug with half as much satisfaction from the creature.

"What will you do now?" the creature asked, its voice somehow coming from no direction, yet at the same time from all of them.

"Probably plan B as soon as I come up with it," I told it as I stared at Stan, my voice far calmer than I felt.

"You had such fervor moments ago. I see you need incentive to act. Allow me to facilitate."

I spun around, bringing my arms up in defense. I hadn't needed to. I could see everything in the reflection of the convenience store's broad front windows.

He Who Walks Behind emerged from the shadows in front of the terrified Stan. Broad shoulders stretched as its massive, horrible arms wrapped around him, crushing him as easily as a man picking up a child. A third limb, possibly a tail or more likely a tentacle, covered in the same fungal-like growths as the rest of the creature joined the two arms.

Stan was wrapped at the shoulders, at the bottom of the ribs, and at the hips.

The creature was strong enough to bench press a car. I knew what was going to happen. I couldn't look away.

With a slow smile and a simple, lazy motion that one would expect from a tired man stretching, He Who Walks Behind tore Stan the gas station clerk into three pieces.

I'd seen death before. I'd seen my own father die in front of me. But nothing I had seen could have ever prepared me for what happened to Stan. I spun around in time to see the three sections drop to the asphalt. Blood went everywhere. In the dim light of the parking lot it looked more black than red. Stan's arms were jerking rapidly in frantic windmills, and his mouth opened as if to scream, but nothing came out except a short sound followed by a vomiting gurgle and a thick splatter of blood.

Stan's wide, terrified eyes stared at mine for a second, and I couldn't force myself to look away. I should have looked away.

When a wizard looks into another's eyes, they see them in another light, an unfathomably intimate and personal light. And, for just a second they see you in the same way. As Stan fell to pieces, he and I looked at each other.

Stan was unremarkable. He was your average underachiever. Behind his gas station attendant job there was little to nothing he aspired to. Once upon a time he had. A few years ago he had goals and he had drive—but they were beaten out of him.

He was the epitome of try and try again until you give up. He wasn't a pothead who lit up to feel good. He did it to get away from the nagging sensation that he was never going to amount to anything.

In that instance that we looked upon each others soul, I feel an impending, unerring terror as what I understood about Stan grew, and at the same time, what he was, who he was became less and less.

I watched Stan's soul as he died, more intimately and more attentively than I would have ever wanted to. It was disturbing beyond all concepts of understanding. One moment it was there, and the next it was violated with a nothingness so primal and otherworldly that he stopped being human.

The thing that had once been Stan fell to the ground into an empty pile of soiled clothes and meat.

Something in my mind broke.

I had never seen death come like that. As a humiliation, a reduction of a unique soul into nothing and a human being into nothing more than the components that constituted its body. When the creature killed Stan, it didn't simply end his life. It had violated the sanctity of his soul and—there were no words in the entirety of existence to explain what it had done.

The action had underscored the underlying futility, the ultimate insignificance of that life. Stan had been a man, albeit a fairly unmotivated and flawed one. It had made him into less than nothing—something that had been a waste of the energy and effort it had consumed to exist. Something that had never had a future, or a choice in its own destiny or fate.

Stan would never have a chance to be anything more.

I had chosen to rob the gas station. I had involved Stan in the struggle. It hadn't been his fight at all. He hadn't deserved to die. He had done nothing to earn his death.

I had never intended to hurt the guy and I never would have. Nonetheless, without my decision to stick up the convenience store, Stan would have still been loitering behind the counter, killing time until his next joint. He had been caught up in violence that had nothing to do with him. He was a bystander, he had always been a bystander and it had finally, pointlessly killed him.

A heat began to build in my chest.

That wasn't right.

Stan should never have died like that. I should not have had to watch his soul be annihilated by that creature. No one should. No one—no man, no beast, no creature, nothing—should ever be allowed to decide, in a moment of malicious humor, that it got to end someone's life. To take away everything that a person was, or everything that they could possibly be.

Stan hadn't deserved it. He had done nothing to earn the attention of the creature, that demon—that monster—that had murdered him.

I felt my jaw begin to ache as it clenched harder and harder. I could feel a rapid pulse beating behind my eyes. There was a terrible pressure inside my head and the heat inside my chest began to burn and spread, and with it came a rising wave of anger, and something brighter, and deadlier than anger that came welling up like a great wave from a sea of fire.

It. Wasn't. Right.

No, it wasn't, and something like that never could be. The world wasn't a fair place, was it? I had more reason to know it than most people twice my age. The world wasn't a nice place, and it wasn't fair. It would take everything from you if you let it, and even if you didn't let it—it would take it anyway and ruin everything you loved. People who didn't deserve it suffered and died every single day.

No one ever did anything about it. Maybe someone should.

The heat in my chest that spread, spread until it burned in every corner of my body. It was too hot, too all encompassing. I had to do something, I had to _burn_ something.

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. The heat within me began to flicker and pulsate, and then in an instant it vanished and it felt like the sun itself was shining down on me. My skin felt warm, so warm. It was as if I was standing in the middle of a field, the summer sun overhead warming me.

I opened my eyes and stared at He Who Walks Behind.

"I can see you."

The creature was crouched over Stan's corpse, its talons tapping lightly on the dead man's open eyes. Its mouth was still stretched into that horrible, wide smile, and when our eyes met, its smile widened and its eyes narrowed. "Ahhhh," it said. "Ahhhh. There you are."

"I am not a victim. I am not a powerless child. I am a wizard." I spoke, my voice calm and soft. I was furious, my anger burned as bright as the sun.

A moment of clarity hit me as we stared at each other "This isn't your world." I told it.

"Not now," He Who Walks Behind murmured, its smile widening. "But it will be ours again in just a little more time."

"You won't be around to see it." I said.

I had never used my magic in anger. I had never consciously tried to harm another being with my power.

However, I had never met something like this creature before. If I had never met it maybe I never would have ever wanted to use my magic to hurt another being. But if anything ever in the history of this world had ever had it coming, if ever a being that was deserving of my violent, it was the bloodstained creature crouching over Stan's mangled body.

"I…I have nothing left." I whispered, my fist clenching. I felt the knuckles of it pop one by one. That was new. "My home, my family, I have nothing left except my life. I'm not going to allow you to do as you please with it."

I couldn't run around anymore. If I did I may have gotten more innocent bystanders killed.

I reached into the miniature star that had formed within my chest, that ever burning source of my righteous fury and anger. It answered my touch like a puppy, eager and with endless enthusiasm.

"Flickum bicus just doesn't seem appropriate for what I'm feeling right now," I replied. The head in my body burned brightly and I felt like my very skin was on fire. The scent of burning hair and fabric crept up my nostrils and I began to see wafting ribbons of black smoke begin to drift skywards. "In fact, there are no words."

Words, incantations. They were crutches wizards used so that they didn't accidentally unleash their powers. They tied the thoughts and energies of their spells to words unique and ones they would not use in their daily lives to avoid accidentally setting things on fire, or exploding them.

I no longer had any need of them. There was a single purpose for my magic. I would never need it for anything else.

I lifted my hand up into the air above my head. The ever burning heat in my body flickered and seemed to draw up into it, leaving the rest of my body cold and my hand on fire. Literally.

My right hand glowed with Starlight.

"Disappear."

I brought my hand down like a guillotine upon He Who Walks Behind.

For a single brief moment it was as if the sun shone again and the darkness of the night was washed away, and the world was bathed in daylight.

The area in front of me erupted into light, a single great column of pure white light.

There was a great noise, a groaning of steel and the world before me exploded. The column of light faded away and a conflagration of gasoline fuelled fire. The explosion flung me back, scorching my skin and burning away the hair on my eyebrows. I hit the thick glass of the store windows and fell to the ground in a heap. I laid there, slumped against the window for a long moment.

A sudden weariness, a tiredness that was deeper and more profound than anything I had ever felt before began to fill the emptiness that the warmth had occupied.

I was dying.

And then the second tank went up.

Hot wind and pieces of smoking metal showered against the front of the convenience store. There was a sickening crash and the sound of shattered glass behind me and a pain erupted in my chest. I didn't have to look down to see the large, long fragment of corrugated iron that had impaled me.

I stared blankly at the flames and saw a shape within it—or rather, what was left of it. He Who Walks Behind wasn't entirely there any longer. It was missing half its body and what was left glowed impossibly bright, brighter than the hottest metal.

A voice emerged from what was left of its mouth, something huge and terrifying, a voice that belonged to gods and the monster of myth.

"HOW DARE YOU!" it roared. "HOW DARE YOU RAISE YOUR HAND AGAINST ME!"

The figure collapsed to the ground within the raging inferno and the roaring flames swept in and consumed what was left of it.

"Get bent," I gurgled.

The bone deep weariness that I felt seemed to grow and grow.

I'd won my first fight. But it looked like it was going to be my last. How pointless it all was. In the end I killed myself.

I couldn't help but give a bitter smile. Life wasn't fair.

I struggled to keep my eyes opened. If I closed them I wasn't sure they would ever open again. The sting of the metal that had been driven into my stomach by the explosion did a good job of keeping me awake for the moment. It no doubt did a good job of making me bleed out as well.

"I…"

"I don't want to die." My eyes began to blur with fresh tears.

I had nothing left to live for, but I didn't want to die.

It hurt, it hurt so much.

I wanted anyone to save me. Anyone at all would have been fine. Even Justin would have been fine. I'd have put the straitjacket on if it meant the pain would end. I wished—I wished I wasn't going to die. I wished it had turned out differently.

I lost the feeling in my body.

I couldn't feel anything at all but the creeping coldness of death as it sunk deeper and deeper into my body.

My vision was going. I could see blue.

I blinked slowly.

I was seeing blue.

In front of me, a scant few yards a glowing circle had appeared on the ground, and had begun to form complex shapes within it until it had formed a familiar magical circle. The circle began to rotate and lift off the ground, and as it did. Something began to appear within it.

"Levi-tan here to grant your wildest drea—Uwah! What happened to you?!"

I stared at the figure that had appeared from the magical circle. "…Am I hallucinating?"

What stood before me could only be described as a magical girl. I wasn't talking about a female wizard. I meant a genuine bonafide Japanese magical girl. Pink sailor outfit, magical wand and all. More than that she was stacked and more importantly she couldn't have been more than 14 years old.

She had black hair that had been tied up into two high-sitting pigtails. She had the prettiest pink eyes I'd ever seen.

"Don't die!" 'Levi-tan' told me as she crouched in front of me. "You're not allowed to die yet!" She spoke with a strange accent, but was more or less fluent.

I gave her a weak smile. "I'm definitely trying not to," I told her. "But I don't think its taking."

She gave me a confused look before smiling. "Ah! You summoned me to save your life, right~ right?" she exclaimed happily, giving me a beaming smile. Like she was delighted that I was dying.

"Not intentionally," I told her. "You know I've always heard of people having their life flash before their eyes when they're dying," I coughed out a part of my lung. It splattered on her pristine pink outfit.

"Sorry," I told her. "I've never heard of Japanese schoolgirls appearing to people who are dying."

She blinked slowly and a more tender smile graced her lips. "I can save you," she told me, her voice soft and gentle. Her gloved hand came up and gently cupped my cheek. "If you wish for it, I can save you. You summoned me with your desire to live."

The hand against my cheek felt so warm.

"I don't want to die," I told my hallucination.

"That's all I need to hear," she told me. "But I'll have you take responsibility for having me save your life!" she beamed at me. "What's your name?"

"Harry." I told her.

She puffed her cheeks out. "I meant your _name_!"

I stared at her for a long moment. If it had been another day or another time I'd have refused to give my name up to a stranger. "Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, pleased to meet you." I gave her a bloody smile.

She stood up and held out a hand over me. A small magical circle appeared beneath her fingers and something translucent and dark red appeared from it before it fell to my chest. I couldn't feel it as it landed; I was too numb.

"I, Serafall Leviathan of the Four Satans, command by my name, to thee, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden: To allow thy soul to remain on this earth, to become my devil slave. As your new master, I grant you with a new life."

I felt what blood that remained in my face drain out as I listened to her chant and felt the—what I now recognized to be a chess piece sink into my chest.

I had made a terrible mistake.

—~—


	2. Chapter 2

—~—

I woke up with a start. My head jerked and my arms came up swiping at invisible nightmares.

It took me a moment to realize I wasn't under attack. It took me another second to realize that the nightmare had in fact not been a dream.

It was still dark, and the parking lot in front of me was still smouldering in the aftermath of the smack down I had laid on the assassin that had been sent after me. There was a massive section of the ground that was missing from the tanks explosion, what remained of the asphalt had been warped by the excessive heat and extreme forces of the tanks exploding.

Debris was scattered all around and made it look more like a war zone, rather than the parking lot of a petrol station. The residual heat was still excessive. I was sweating and the sun was long gone.

The scent in the air had changed, it had reeked of death and dead things while He Who Walks Behind had been around. Now it just smelt like gasoline and melted tar. A marked improvement if you asked anyone.

My mind began to repeat the events, and recalled what had happened at the end. I couldn't help but grin; I had won.

With the thrill of victory also came the sudden panic of recalling that I had been impaled through the chest.

My hands flew up to my chest and I looked down to find a massive bloodied hole in my shirt. On a second almost distant thought, I realized it would have been more appropriate to just call my entire body bloody.

My mouth went dry and my fingers touched upon the still damp blood that surrounded the hole in my shirt. Beneath it I could see clean unblemished—if you didn't count the blood—skin. I ran my fingers over it in disbelief.

It hadn't been a dream, or a hallucination?

My mind was suddenly filled a concern that had been previously unknown to me.

Had I sold my soul to the devil?

"Sweet, foolish child, what have you done to yourself?"

My head jerked towards the source of the voice in panic that lasted for a brief second before I remembered where I had heard the voice before.

A very tall, slender, unimaginably beautiful woman appeared out of thin air in front of me. Reddish hair curled down past her hips in a riotous cascade, complementing her flawless skin, high cheekbones, and lush, full, blood red lips. Her face was ageless, and her golden eyes had vertical slits instead of pupils, like a cat. She wore a slender, strapless dress of a pale green.

"Godmother," I breathed, my eyes wide in surprise, partially because of her appearance, partially because of the entirely foreign look that had taken place on her features.

For the first time I'd ever seen she looked… sad?

"I know I said I'd stop getting into fights, but this one was unavoidable." I told her with a sheepish look.

Leanansidhe, my fairy godmother raised a single slender eyebrow. "Yes, I can very much see that Harry," she said to me, "But it was not what I was referring to."

I stared at her for a long, long moment and I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out. I had already known it had been real. I had proof enough of my clothes bearing the marks of mortal wounds. But to have Lea look at me like that.

"I didn't know," I said listlessly. "I thought it wasn't real."

Lea gave a soft sigh and gave me a reproachable look that as always made me feel embarrassed, as if I had done something monumentally stupid.

"I would have died!" I defended myself suddenly, getting very self-conscious. "J-Justin he—he tried to—and then he sent him after me and and!" I started to ramble and babble, my tongue moving on its own accord and failing to form words.

"And yet here we are," Lea said softly, her lands lifting up and gesturing around her. "I would say this had been, ah, what do they call it these days?" Her finger came up to her lips and tapped upon them twice as she looked off into the distance. "Yes, a valuable learning experience."

I couldn't help but stare at her, not in appreciation of her beauty, but rather, in final understanding of how inhuman Lea truly was.

"I almost died!"

"You did die, and you might yet again." Her gold eyes gleamed with something I couldn't quite place my finger on.

I stiffened and a panic surged through me.

"Calm yourself," she said to me gently, her expression shifting again. "I have never meant you harm and I never will, Harry." She told me. "Have I not been here for you?"

I shifted slightly and frowned. It was true. As far back as I could remember Lea had been there. She'd been around when I was in middle school. I hadn't known who she was back then. All I knew was that she was a pretty lady who had done nice things for me every now and then. I hadn't really found out _who_ she was until after I had been adopted by Justin.

I breathed in deeply and let out a long, slow breath. I felt the muscles in my body ease ever so slightly.

"Justin tried to…," I trailed off. I hesitated for a moment before I asked in a small voice. "…Why didn't you help me?"

Lea regarded me silently. "While painful for you, I judged it to be prudent for you to experience." Her face briefly tinged with something unpleasant. "However, I did not foresee DuMorne summoning such a thing. If it was in my power to have assisted you I would have," she told me.

I knew she was telling the truth. It was impossible for her to lie. That's why I felt an indignant anger at her having _deemed_ it right for me to have gone through it all. "…Did you know about Justin—about what he intended to do?"

"I did not," Lea said after a moment. "Had I known he intended to enthral you, I would never have allowed you to come under his care."

I nodded slowly.

"I had merely assumed he meant to, ah, how they say… turn you to the darkside?"

"That's almost as bad!"

"It is?"

It was at times like this that it was as clear as day that my Godmother was anything but human. I sighed and gave Lea a tired smile. "I didn't know you were a Star Wars fan?"

Lea's eyes sparkled in an amusement that only she seemed to comprehend.

The amusement died away and Lea's expression faded until there was nothing left. The look on her face was wholly alien and devoid of anything human. It scared me.

"L-lea?"

Those gold, feline eyes regarded me silently, absent of emotion. "I cannot protect you from the Leviathan."

I swallowed. "You were here for that?" I asked, my voice almost meek. I felt as if I was a child who'd been caught stealing candy by his parents.

"I was not present. I can sense it within you. The darkness that she placed has taken root amongst your veins." Lea seemed to descend in front of me and a second later I found her straddling my legs, her hands coming to rest on my shoulders.

"I never knew you felt this way about me, Lea," I said, a faint strained laugh coming from my lips. I found myself leaning back away from her.

The void of emotion on her face suddenly went away and she looked at me. "I cannot save you from her, Harry." Lea said. She sounded concerned, genuinely compassionate. "I can no longer uphold my obligations for where you will go and who you will be with."

"I could end you now," she told me, her voice soft. "It would save you from them."

"I don't want to die," I told her, suddenly alarmed. "I really, really don't want to die!"

Lea's smile remained for a brief moment before it turned into a frown. "…You must run Harry," she told me. "She will be back soon, I cannot stop her from taking you, but you can run."

My heart thudded in my chest rapidly as Lea gracefully stood up once more. "Until she takes you, I will be here for you."

"Can't you do anything?" I asked Lea, my voice pleading as I forced myself onto my feet.

Lea regarded me for a long moment before in an instant she seemed to vanish. Not seemed to—one moment she was there and the next she was not.

I stood there for a few more seconds before I realized.

I could hear sirens, and they were getting closer. As I thought about it I realized they should have been here ages ago. Whatever the creature had done it had apparently been enough that a massive explosion had gone unnoticed. It had obviously stopped working at some point—no doubt because the thing that did it was half past dead.

The sirens got louder as they got closer.

It was time to get the fuck out of dodge.

I turned and I ran.

As I ran, I realized that something very fundamental had changed about my body. The first major tip off should have been that I was alive, rather than dead after being mortally wounded. Considering I had been half past dead not too long ago I felt great! In fact I doubt I'd ever felt better.

I moved smoothly like a well-oiled machine. As I ran it didn't feel like there was any strain was being put on legs at all.

I began to push a bit harder and my body pushed onwards, my legs moving faster and faster until I was certain I would lose track of my feet and go tumbling. But I never did. I didn't over think it. Instead I just ran, it had served me pretty damn well so far today.

It was another hour or two before I stopped running—not because I was tired, far from it, rather, I had no idea where I was. My body was definitely changed. I was faster—tougher, able to endure more strain. I might have been stronger as well, I really didn't have a chance to find out.

As far as I could tell I had found myself in the middle of suburbia. The lights were on in most of the homes. People were no doubt gathering around the dinner table or in some cases the TV.

As I stood there on the street, the dim lights of the streetlamps cast faint shadows on the sidewalk and the road. I took a moment to take in my situation. It'd all been one big rush of motion since I had gotten home and found out the people I had loved had never loved me at all and had intended from the start to hurt me.

But I had stopped the assassin he had sent after me. It had apparently killed me, but I had done it. My fist clenched at my side. I was beyond fury at this point. All that was left in me was cold, detached emptiness except for two things.

My hatred Justin for taking away everything he had given me.

My heartache for Elaine, who had betrayed me, who I had never meant anything to.

But my godmother had still been there in the end for me, in an odd, late sort of way. She predated that bastard. She'd always been there for me. I took a deep breath and let it out. She hadn't cursed me out when she had happened upon me, as tainted as I had become.

In her own sick and twisted way she had even offered to save me from what I had to look forward to in the future—by killing me, but she meant well I assumed. Like I hadn't managed to outrun Justin's assassin, I knew I couldn't escape the devil that had resurrected me. In the back of my mind I could almost sense her, that strange big-breasted magical girl. It was akin to knowing where the sun was while standing in the middle of a field. It wasn't so much a warmth, or a pressure or a light. It was something I couldn't find a word for.

She wasn't coming for me just yet, that much I did know.

I let out a sound of frustration and my stomach responded with a voracious roar.

I'm sixteen, so sue me.

After a few moments of consideration I decided on a course of action.

I'd already robbed and blown up a convenience store and—

I winced and clutched my head as the obscenely intimate memory of Stan's death played over in my head.

I shook my head and began to look for a house without a car out the front and the lights off. It wasn't hard. A few doors down there was a two story house; lights off and cars gone.

I walked up the driveway quickly, careful to make sure no one was suddenly looking out their window and I opened the front door, with a tiny bit of excessive force. The lock broke, or rather everything but the lock broke. It was safe to say that my strength had been similarly increased. I pushed the door open and the lock fell out of the latch hole to the ground.

I scampered inside and shut the door behind me before flicking on the lights as I went along as I made my way to the kitchen.

"One robbery and I've gone habitual," I muttered to myself in disbelief, shaking my head. I flicked on the last light switch in the hallway. It occurred to me a fraction of an instance before the lights came on, that I could smell food, freshly cooked food.

"…Godmother, what a big appetite you must have." I said, my voice flat as I regarded Lea and the apparent banquet that was sitting on the dining room table of the house I just happened to break into.

Lea sat on the corner of the table, her legs folded delicately upon each other with a glass of something dark red in her hand. She regarded me with a measure of amusement. "Is this the part where I respond with 'All the better to eat you with'?"

"It would have been nice," I admitted honestly as I walked towards the table. My eyes roamed over the food on it. It was still steaming, it had been very, very freshly made. I couldn't help but lick my lips.

"How are you inside this house?" I asked her after a brief moment. "Shouldn't the threshold have stopped you?"

Lea let out a soft tinkling laugh that was akin to bells slightly out of tune. "Should it not have stopped you?"

My heart skipped a beat or two. "Should it have?" I asked her, my voice briefly going a pitch too high.

Lea did not answer. She gestured to the seat next to her that was still tucked under the table. "It does not matter for the moment, come, sit and eat."

That sounded like a really good plan to my stomach. My head however had other ideas. I hadn't quite noticed it at first, but there was something slightly off about Lea.

'Off' perhaps wasn't the right word. She looked and seemed like she always had, but there was something about her that I couldn't put my finger on, but something in the back of my mind was screaming at me.

"Would you do me the honor of eating with me, in exchange?" I asked Lea.

Her feline eyes widened in delight and a pleased smile touched her lips. "I accept," she spoke, her voice tinged with approval. "Food in exchange for your company, delightful."

My Godmother slipped off the edge of the table and made her way around to the opposite side. She stood there, beside the chair, eyes sparkling with mischievous delight as she regarded me with a sort of impatient-patience.

I stared at her for a brief moment.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" I asked flatly.

"Really," she said. "I've taught you better manners than this, Harry."

I sighed and walked around to the other side of the table. "No you haven't," came my witty retort as I grasped the back of the chair and drew it out.

Lea favored me with a courtly nod of the head and lowered herself into the chair with her usual inhuman grace. Myself, I barely had the grace not to look down the neck of her gown as she settled herself in. I noted that she weighed next to nothing as I pushed her chair in, most likely because she only had a passing acquaintance with mundane things like gravity to begin with.

I stepped back around the table and sat myself down across from Lea. I resisted the urge to simply tear the food apart and devour what I could. There were questions burning inside that I needed answers for. The most important question that I had to ask for the moment was the one that kept me from asking them.

I looked up to see Lea regarding me with an intense interest.

I steeled my nerves and took the plunge.

"Godmother, how is it that I can understand…" I hesitated for a brief moment and mulled over what I wanted to ask exactly. "I think I understand your nature a bit better than I once did."

"It is not surprising," Lea said with a pleased look upon her lovely features. "You are no longer entirely mortal," she considered me for a long moment. "Your nature has been corrupted into something similar to my own."

I swallowed. "Could you elaborate on that?"

"I could," Lea said with a teasing look. "But I do not believe it would do you well to know at this point in time, my son."

"You know I dislike it when you call me that," I said, a frown marring my lips.

Lea's eyes glittered and she gestured towards herself. "Am I not your Godmother? Is it not an appropriate, and affectionate moniker for you, Harry?" She brought a finger up and tapped it on her lips thoughtfully. "Or perhaps... after all you can no longer be considered my godson can you?"

I could already tell where she was going with this. "Please don't," I said to her dryly, knowing that I wouldn't be able to stop her either way.

"Don't be that way, dear, sweet devilson of mine."

A twinge of disgust filled my stomach. "If you call me that again I'm going to get angry," I told Lea honestly.

She gave me a look that told me she was pleased with my reaction.

I reached to the table and picked up a slice of what looked to be turkey and bit down on it. As I chewed I considered what I wanted to ask Lea. I could ask her anything at all and she wasn't obligated to give me a direct answer, and she was a skilled tactician at distracting me with pointless things as usual.

I swallowed and poured myself a glass of water from the pitcher that stood on the table.

"Alright," I said after I took a drink from the glass. "I have a million questions. But the most important one is…" I fell silent.

What _was_ the most important thing for me to ask her? Was I really a Devil? It was a pointless question, I knew the answer already. I could ask her about 'The Leviathan' or Levi-tan as she called herself. I could ask about what she meant about not being able to uphold her obligations for 'where' and 'who' I would be with. The who was easy, the where, however was causing me a very much deserved amount of concern.

But, despite my death and rebirth as a minion of hell, there was something overriding all the more important thoughts in my mind.

Revenge.

It felt so utterly human that I couldn't help but embrace it. "I want to kill him Lea," I said, my voice cracking as I found myself unable to contain the sheer rage that began to build up inside. "I want to hurt him and make him regret what he did to me."

Lea remained silent and watched me.

"Can I do it?" I asked her. "Can I kill him?"

"You have the capacity within you to crush him as you would an ant," Lea told me. "Whether or not you will be able to as you are is akin to a different beast. Even amongst the White Council, DuMorne is considered to be skilled."

"The White whatnow?"

Lea blinked once.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" I exclaimed. "Why didn't he ever tell me?" I demanded to know before angrily stabbing a fork into a slice of carrot. "Who are they?"

"The White Council are the ruling body of wizards. They oversee the affairs of mortal practitioners." Lea began to explain to me. "To be considered a member one must have a certain level of magical strength and aptitude. Membership is mandatory for those who they believe qualify for it. Though all mortal magic users are forced to answer to them. They have existed since the times of the roman empire."

"Why didn't he tell me about them?"

Lea opened her mouth to no doubt say something obvious and make me feel inadequately stupid. "Don't bother, I get it," I said bitterly. "He kept me in the dark so I wouldn't have anyone to run to."

I chewed on the carrot for a few seconds and swallowed. "Can I tell them about Justin?"

"You could," Lea answered and tilted her head. "If they learned of his treachery and use of dark magics they would come and they would unmake him."

"Then can we—"

"However," Lea continued, cutting me off. "He is a respected member of their cabal and it would take more time than you have for them to determine his guilt, and that is of course if he consents to their investigations."

I gritted my teeth. "So that's a dead end then?"

"If it is a swift vengeance that you seek, you will not find it with the White Council," Lea told me and began to lean forwards. It did nice things to her cleavage which I had been pointedly ignoring, much like the points that were starting to form under that pale dress of hers.

"If you wish it, Harry, you could destroy the treacherous viper," Lea told me, her voice lowering and somehow causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up—amongst other things. "As I have spoken, so it is. You have within you the power to destroy the man who took your life from you." Her tongue briefly appeared and moistened her lips.

"His actions have consequences which cannot be allowed to go unanswered." She hissed.

A shiver went through my body as Lea's tone devolved, going from what one could call sensual, almost inviting to something akin to the seething anger I had felt minutes prior.

It called to me in a sense. A sudden realization that I couldn't place the beginning's of. I _understood_ why Lea's words came out as they did.

Lea—or rather the Leanansidhe was my Godmother. She was of the Sidhe, creatures who did deals and made bargains to gain power. She was terrifyingly strong, the depths of her power I couldn't begin to even understand.

She got her power from bargaining, and she, like all Sidhe kept their word. It was something unthinkable—something they were incapable of doing; to break ones word, or the deals one made was akin to the greatest taboo.

I knew that my mother—my real mother, Margaret Dresden had done some sort of deal with Lea, the Sidhe had told me as much herself. It was why she was my godmother.

Justin's actions had done worse than lead to my death. I could no longer be considered to be purely human—if at all. While in the end it had been my choice, she couldn't lay the blame to me. Mainly because the subject of her obligation was me.

Justin, however had no such protection from Lea's displeasure

Lea took a deep breath and sat up straight and the terrifying disposition she held fell away. "You have more than enough power to lay waste to Justin DuMorne," she told me. "What you lack is resolve."

I opened my mouth to protest, but I fell silent.

She wasn't wrong. I wasn't certain if I would be able to confront Justin. He had been everything to me. He'd saved me from the orphanage after my father died. He'd given me a home and given me purpose in life. More than that he had given me my training in magic.

He was the master and I was the apprentice. I had no delusions about how thoroughly I was outclassed ability wise. I'd seen him do things I still couldn't understand. The thought against going up against him in a magical fight made a spike of fear go through me.

I'd only ever cast one spell in my entire life with the intent to harm. It had been mere hours ago against the assassin that he had sent to kill me.

That's right. He had sent that creature to kill me, and he had succeeded.

Once again, Stan's dying moments played through my head in vivid technicolour.

"What do I have to do?" I asked as I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the fresh memory of Stan's soul as it had been annihilated.

"We shall make bargain, you and I," Lea told me, her voice firm.

I looked up and saw her staring at me intently.

"You will deliver Justin DuMorne unto me for judgment, and I will give you what you need to take your vengeance from him."

My breath hitched in my throat. "What do you mean, deliver him to you?"

"I would have you unmake DuMorne inside his own house," she told me. "I would have you render him unto me, and I would have you exact vengeance upon him." Lea's eyes once again took on a maddened sheen. "It will be the last that he will know."

I swallowed. "You're pretty scary right now Lea," I told her honestly and gave her a nervous smile.

And just like that it was gone and she was somewhat passable as normal again.

She regarded me with a raised eyebrow. "Your time grows short, child. I will never again offer a chance such as this."

I licked my lips and looked away from Lea to the massive spread of food that still sat between us. She was willing to help me get back at Justin. All I had to do was beat him without killing him and hand him over to her. I wasn't quite sure I could manage that, considering the only battle spell that I knew didn't quite have a name and was dangerous to even think about.

Hindsight was twenty twenty in this case, I suppose. There was something that told me handing Justin over to Lea was in many ways worse than outright killing him. My lips drew back in an almost snarl. "Fine. Deal." I said and watched as Lea's eyes briefly closed and she drew in a shuddering breath of pleasure.

"Very well," Lea said, her eyes opening to show that her feline pupils had dilated. She regarded me with those inhuman eyes of hers. She seemed to flow out of her seat and around the table, before appearing beside me. Her soft, warm hands gently cupped my cheeks and tilted my face up towards her. The smell of something sweet and flowery and desirable filled my next breath.

My heart began to beat rapidly as Lea began to lean down, her blood red lips inches away from my own. Her reddish hair cascaded down like a curtain and blocked out everything else. I didn't dare say anything. It was beyond inappropriate, my sensibilities told me as much, but Lea had been my first crush, my first wet dream. No one I'd ever met had ever measured up to her.

My eyes flickered down to her lips and I couldn't help but lick mine.

"Eat up, Harry. You will need your strength. Go to the house of DuMorne and exact your vengeance. I will wait for your call." Lea's voice came out softly before she dipped her head and her lips came onto mine.

They were soft, softer than Elaine's by far, soft and warm and moist. I suddenly found myself kissing back as a sudden daring and courage filled me. My hand moved on its own and found it's way to Lea's hip as I worked my lips against hers.

I was filled with a profound sense of disappointment as Lea drew her lips away from mine and I found her golden eyes gazing down at me, her beautiful hair still concealing the world around us. "Naughty boy," she purred, an amused, satisfied smile on her lips as she leaned up and kissed me upon the forehead ever so gently.

And then she was gone once more.

My heart hammered away in my chest. I could still feel the warmth and softness of her lips on my own. I licked them and let out a sigh before beginning to pile my plate with food.

The Leanansidhe was an Oedipus complex just waiting to happen. She was the closest thing I had to a mother and she was encouraging me to kill the closest thing I had to a father these days.

As I began to dig into the food I'd piled on my plate, I took a moment to actually look at the house I had broken into. I hadn't been able to tell initially because of how dark it had been, but it was surprisingly empty of contents. The smell of food had cloaked the smell of fresh paint as well.

It explained a bit, on why and how Lea was able to get inside without being invited. I didn't want to consider her words and on how I was able to be inside as well. It could have just been she was trying to stir me up, but I felt no different than I had before. I didn't have a sudden urge to set fire to the world and to steal peoples souls.

I was filled with a healthy amount of hatred and anger, but that was more than understandable considering my position.

Despite everything I felt confident in myself. I felt assured that I could take Justin down. I had no idea what Lea had done, but my victory was as certain as the sun rising. It was inevitable.

What wasn't certain, was the how. The only spell I had ever used for the express purposes of injuring someone wasn't quite the tool that was required for the job. A house, while less prone to sudden explosions was very much more flammable than your average gas station.

In addition, I don't think there would be anything left of him if I used _that_ and I doubt Lea would be happy with the ashes and remains. As I ate and toyed with the food on my plate I gave deep consideration to what I intended to go against Justin with.

I knew I had the element of surprise on my side. There was very little doubt in my mind that Justin never expected me to show up on his doorstep again. In fact, as far as he was probably concerned I _was_ dead. I didn't know the deep details of thaumaturgy and tracking people, but I was pretty damn certain that anything he had that could have possibly tracked me would no longer work.

I was, in essence no longer the same person. I had died and was reborn as something not quite human. My understanding and outlook was radically different. I was an entirely new person. A new person with an obscene amount of rage borne from it all, but a new person none the less.

In my mind I pictured the sheer majesty and force that I had brought upon the demented monster that Justin had sent against me. I could feel the warmth of it against my skin even now. If I could capture a small, tiny portion of that power it would be more than enough to defeat my once mentor.

However, I couldn't feel the same spark of energy that had filled me when I had used it. I remembered my thoughts clearly, every moment of it. Something was missing from the equation. I ran over everything and in the end it came up with a missing piece of the puzzle. If I did everything as I had done before my experience told me that I would come up with a geyser of heat and fire. It would not even touch a scope of what I had done.

I took another drink of water.

Perhaps I was going about it all wrong. As I played it over in my mind all I could see was us facing off in the ruins of our home. Fire burning away at the remains of the house. But perhaps, despite my sudden urge to make it a reality, I didn't need to be so overt?

The journey didn't matter as long as he paid for what he had done.

As I ate, drank and considered the food on the table slowly got colder and colder until it was room temperature. Which was very unfortunate, because the house apparently wasn't well insulated. I stood up and wrapped my arms tight around me as I left the house. I deeply regretted not having picked my shirt up when I had ran from the gas station.

I left the house, stepping over the lock that had fallen out of the front door frame and began to make my way back the way I had come, only to notice something that was distinctly out of place. At some point a car had rolled up and parked in the driveway.

It wasn't just any car.

It was a 1956 Chevrolet Corvette. My mouth went dry and I couldn't help but walk up to it. The street lamps above illuminated the beautiful beast of a car. It's cream and red had been replaced with a slick custom silver job and the steel trim had been polished to an immaculate chrome perfection. The top of the car was down and the silvery insides were bare to the world.

More importantly, it had a large red ribbon on the front.

"No way." I couldn't help but whisper as I got closer. I reached out and ran a hand over the hood, my touch so lightly I wasn't sure if it was real. I walked around the car and took it in, until I came upon the front of it and caught sight of the license plate.

H311HND

"Oh Lea, you beautiful woman." I breathed out as a sudden rush of glee filled me. I swept around to the drivers side and slipped in. The keys were in the ignition.

I turned them.

The engine growled as if turning the key had awoken a beast many times larger, suddenly I wasn't certain it was just eight cylinders of American muscle under the hood.

The stereo without warning kicked on as the rumbling engine steadied out into a low thrum.

The rift of guitars filled my ears, followed by the steady beat of drums.

_Livin' easy. Lovin' Free. Season ticket on a one way ride._

A wide smile that I couldn't hold back found itself on my lips. "You beautiful, beautiful bitch…" I whispered as my hands clutched the steering wheel.

I couldn't help but throw my head back and laugh as I shifted the car into reverse and drove back onto the road. I spun the car around and began to drive.

_My friends are gonna be there too. I'm on the highway to hell._

Adrenaline filled my veins as I pushed in the clutch and shifted up the gears. Music filled my ears as the wind roared by. I was beyond such a paltry sentiment as 'speed limits' at this point.

Eventually I found myself nearing the still smoking remains of the gas station that I had summarily exploded. There were blue and red lights flashing at the scene, half the road was corded off. I slowed down and began to drive at something akin to the speed limit as I passed by before dropping it further.

I looked out the window and took in the scene. Emergency vehicles were littered around the area and people were crawling over the rubble and wreckage. There were dozens upon dozens of people in bright yellow. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone in the background in gray, observing the scene. I caught their attention briefly and looked back to the road quickly and accelerating.

I may have driven off a bit faster than I had intended.

By the time I had arrived at the beginning of my former homes street the music had ended. The night was quiet and was only filled by the steady thrum of the engine as I dropped the gears down.

I pulled up along the curb a couple houses away and shut the engine off. Without the engine to fill the night the insects began to make themselves known.

I found myself sitting there, my hands resting on the wheel. The leather under it felt nice and supple. It had been a real pleasure to drive. The suspension was nice and solid and the engine was a creature of such ferocity I thought I was going to lose control when I had floored it at one point. That had made it all the more fun if I was being perfectly honest.

If I was being even more honest, I'd have acknowledged that the reason I had parked a few houses away, which coincidentally was the same reason I had yet to get out of the car. My blood screamed for Justin to pay for what he had done. The tiny voice in my head that sounded suspiciously like my godmother wholeheartedly agreed.

But—it sounded stupid and childish—my heart still ached. I didn't want to hurt Justin, the man who had been my entire world. I didn't want to hurt Elaine, who would—despite everything we'd been through together, and _done_ together—help that man take me down.

I let out a long breath to clear my head.

I couldn't think like that. Justin, the man who had taught me magic and Elaine, my first everything weren't there any longer. I pushed Elaine out of my head entirely. DuMorne was my enemy here. He was the one who had sent He Who Walks Behind after me, he was the reason I had died and become whatever it was I was.

As long as Elaine didn't appear before me I was certain I could do this.

But if she did.

If she came before me and helped Justin.

I wasn't certain if I'd be able to fight back. Could I hurt her? We'd hurt each other before. Play fights gone awry and badly considered words. But we'd never meant each other harm.

Again, I pushed the thoughts from my mind. DuMorne was who I had to focus on. He had decades of experience at using magic on me. He knew every trick I could possibly have up my sleeve.

That was why Harry Dresden, Apprentice Wizard, no longer existed. He had died at that gas station. He had been killed by this man disguised as a monster. His dying wish had been to live, and he hadn't quite gotten it. So the next best thing was revenge.

My grip on the steering wheel tightened and the leather squeaked under the force of my twisting hands.

I didn't bother pulling the keys from the ignition.

Either I'd be back to drive away, or I wouldn't.

I stepped out of the car and closed the door with a satisfying thud.

As I breathed the air coalesced into a cloud of steam.

I was as ready as I would ever be.

I walked with purpose along the road up to my former home. It took a while. The grounds were large, almost exceptionally so for the area. Large enough to hide a prepubescent wizards attempts at learning magic. I doubted anyone had even noticed that the window had been blown out.

As I walked up along the drive way I realized how impossibly intimidating the silhouette of the house was. It had long been a comforting sight for me, but for the first time it was anything but.

The window that Justin had blown out had been covered with a blue tarp. The lawn was still covered with bits and pieces of glass and shattered wooden frame. There were no lights on downstairs. There was a light on in Justin's study and Elaine's room.

I took a deep breath and continued walking forwards until I was less than a dozen yards.

There had been a dozen ways that I had considered starting this fight. A million possible ways that I could have let him know I had returned. In the end I couldn't help but be a bit cheesy.

I drew up my force of will and poured it into my right hand. I compacted the emotions that I was feeling down into a tiny bundle of compressed chaotic energy. As I dug deep inside, I realized for the first time, that the depths that I _could_ reach had gotten… deeper. I had once likened gathering my magic to dipping a cup into a bucket. This time it felt a lot more like dropping a bucket down a well and hauling up the contents.

My emotions bubbled away and threatened to rip the spell from my hand prematurely, but I buckled down on them and fed my anger, my hate, my rage, my sorrows and fears into my hand.

My hand trembled, my fingers strained to keep closed.

The forces being held within them demanded to be released.

"Knock, Knock!" I shouted out and drew my fist back before throwing it towards what was once my house.

"_Forzare_!"

A lot of the new spell I had created had been theoretical. It was basically a super amped version of my baseball spell. Except, turned up to eleven. So it shouldn't have surprised me with what happened.

The force tore free from my hand as my fingers flung open and I had to steady myself to keep from being blown backwards. A massive invisible wave crashed into the the house.

The front of the house imploded as if it had been hit by a truck, a large house-sized truck that was also invisible. The sound was deafening and almost on par with the explosion that had rocked the gas station.

"Come out and face me!" I shouted angrily as my chest heaved from the expenditure of energy. My hand dropped down to my side and my fist clenched. "Face me you coward!"

For a brief moment there was no movement. I could see into the front of the house, and there was nothing there to be seen. Justin's bedroom which was on the front side of the house had been totally exposed, except for the mass of bricks and plaster that had covered every inch of the floor and furniture.

There was however, no sign of Justin.

My breaths continued to come heavily as my eyes flickered across the front of the house, even as loose bricks continued to fall and land on the front of the lawn and pieces of wood, barely connected by the barest threads hung from the house's frame, swinging back and forth.

"You should have stayed dead, boy."

I stiffened and my eyes focused in on the front door that had been blown off of its hinges and flung halfway down the house. It shifted, moved, and was pushed to the side.

My lips peeled back in a half snarl as Justin pulled himself up off the floor. He'd apparently been behind the door when the spell had hit. His pajamas were ruffled and covered with debris, his hair was frazzled and his eyes were murderous.

The smart thing to do would have been to hit him with another blast right then and there and knock him senseless. Never let it be said that I was a smart kid.

"Shut up!" I screamed at him angrily, "You fucking bastard! You lied to me! You betrayed me! You and Elaine you both betrayed me!"

Justin stared at me for a long moment, his eyes still furious. "This is your last chance," he told me, his voice as cold as ice as he began to walk through the rubble in the doorway. "I will give you one more chance to come back to Elaine and I."

"You…you monster…" I whispered, my voice quivering with anger. "You think you can take my entire life away from me—you think you can kill me and I'd settle for anything less than equal retribution?"

A flicker of surprise briefly appeared on Justin's features.

"Forzare!" I shouted and threw my hand out towards him again. Unlike the first time I'd cast the spell, this was not nearly as massive or overpowering but it was vastly quicker.

This time Justin was prepared. He brought his hand up in clawing motion.

My invisible blast of force slammed into something equally invisible with the force of a sledge hammer. The shield Justin had pulled up in front of him flared with incandescent silver light before the grass and debris around him blew away as the energy dissipated and spread out in front of the shield.

"You cannot win against me. I taught you everything you know." Justin's voice boomed. He lifted his hand and twisted his fingers in a complex motion that I couldn't keep track of, but knew the outcome of.

I lunged to the side, barely avoiding being peppered with the shot-gun like blast of force that erupted from Justin's hand. He'd once demonstrated it to me when he had been teaching me how to master my own use of raw force.

The ground where I had stood exploded into a shower of grass and dirt.

"Even if you've managed to strengthen your spells, you're never going to be a match for me!"

Another blast of force hit the spot I had been moments before I had rolled to my feet, and again moved out of the way.

What Lea said came to my mind. He was nothing but an ant to me. I could crush him under foot if I had the desire. I watched as Justin's fingers twisted in their elaborate motions and I released a quick and sloppy blast of magical energy at his face.

He may have expected it, but he couldn't shield it or dodge out of the way. I sacrificed power for speed and it slugged him in the face and sent him tumbling backwards. It hit him with the same amount of force as a bean bag would. A bean bag being shot out of a cannon. The spell in his hand fell apart and I heard him give a grunt of pain.

"Boy!" he snarled and pulled himself up.

I never gave him the chance. A stronger, more solid blast of energy caught him in the chest and sent him rolling again until he hit the front steps of the house.

I stared at him grimly and began to walk forwards, power building up in my hands again. This… monster was nothing like the man that had been raising me for the past few years. I refused to believe they were the same person.

I suddenly halted and brought my hands up, watching him warily. He'd never been this slow before. If I hadn't known better I'd have said he was distracted. But it could have all been a ploy to get me to lower my guard so he could sucker punch me.

Justin stood up and calmly dusted himself off, before regarding me with a measuring look. "You've certainly managed to progress with your force spells," he told me with a sound of approval. "If I had known threatening to kill you would be this effective I would have done it long ago."

Alarms were going off in my head. Something was terribly wrong and I couldn't see what it was.

"Forzare!" I shouted and threw my hand out again, letting loose yet another blast of invisible force that drained a bit more out of me than the previous spells had, leaving me a bit winded.

Justin's hand came up and his silvery shield once again blocked the strike.

"Very, very impressive, Harry," Justin said to me, using my name for the first time in days. "You've quite the talent for forceful manipulation of magic, don't you?"

He kept walking closer.

"Forzare!"

Again, the spell was blocked.

I began to step backwards, not willing to let Justin get within range.

I was so focused on Justin that I didn't notice the shimmer to the left of me until it was too late. Elaine appeared a few feet away, staring at me. I brought my hands up to defend myself, but that was what Justin had intended on from the very beginning.

Justin's sucker punch hit me straight on. The force akin to a truck rammed into my chest and literally lifted me up off my feet, before curving downwards and slamming me into the ground. I let out a grunt of pain. I'd been hit harder by gas station shelves! I tried to push myself up off the ground, but found that the force was unrelenting. It was like a heavy blanket that refused to lift.

I couldn't help but stare at Elaine as she stood, mere feet from me. Her eyes watched mine, cold and detached. "E-Elaine," I gasped out. "H-help!"

She just stared at me. I could see something flicker in her eye briefly, before it was gone again.

"Elaine, bind him while I hold him down."

Elaine's hands came up and with slow precision began to weave through the air. She began to mutter something in some variant on Old Egyptian, adding a roll of her wrist and a ripple of her fingers. I felt her spell lock around me like a full-body straitjacket, paralyzing me from chin to toes, wrapping me in silent, unseen force. It pressed against my jacket, flattening it, and made it hard to take a deep breath.

Elaine's hands dropped to her side and out of the corner of my eye I saw Justin walking closer, his hand held out over me. The combination of the two forceful spells made it impossible to breath. I could see stars in front of my eyes.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I was actually seeing stars and I found myself losing focus on the two standing over me. They seemed to blur out of my vision and above the millions of shining dots in the sky became all the brighter, and all the larger.

A sense of calmness fell over me. Whether it was from the spells squeezing the air out of my lungs and a sudden lack of oxygen to my brain, or something else, I wasn't quite sure. Suddenly the pressure coating my body lessened significantly and my lungs greedily drank in the air, before stopping prematurely as the cocoon of air that had been locked in place around me stopped them from expanding.

The world swam into focus again and I found myself being pulled along the lawn on my back. I couldn't move my head, but I could see—and feel—Justin's hand on my ankle, literally pulling me along causing my jacket to bunch up. My back was itching something fierce from the grass, glass and whatever else had been blown onto the lawn.

I resisted the urge to panic and freak out. Elaine, knowingly or not had used a binding that I had long since worked out _how_ to break. Despite the situation and my helplessness I suddenly found myself staring at Elaine out of the corner of my eye.

This… wasn't my girlfriend at all. The Elaine I remember… Elaine was always full of passion. It was the nature of who she was. I could see her cursing me out and trying to set fire to my clothes while I wore them, I could see her breaking a girls nose for getting too cozy for me. But I could not imagine in my wildest dreams that she would simply stand there and just _stare_ at me.

But, she had to know, she just _had_ to know that the binding she had used was one we'd already worked out how to beat. It was impressive against your average person, or animal, yes. But against a wizard it wasn't infallible.

Did I mean so little to her that she'd forget something like that? There had to be something else going on. Something she couldn't tell me. That had to be it.

"Elaine, tell Harry how you _really_ feel about him." Justin said as he dragged me up over the concrete and shattered steps of the porch.

It hurt.

But it didn't hurt as much as what Elaine said next.

"I love Harry."

My heart attempted to strangle itself.

"And this is for his own good, isn't it? If he can't be trusted he can't live with us anymore, can he?"

"For his own good," Elaine agreed, her voice all but a whisper. "Please stay with me Harry. I love you."

"Stop," I began to sob, unable to help it. "Please stop."

"I love you, Harry," Elaine repeated. "Stay with me."

"I hate you, Justin, I hate you so much," I whispered, my throat choked up and my eyes blurring.

"It's alright, Harry," Justin's said as he dropped my leg and I found myself in the middle of the lounge room once more. The straitjacket from the afternoon still sat on the table, as pristine white as ever. "You won't feel that way for very long. It truly pains me to see you in this condition," he lamented. "I hadn't wanted it to come to this, but you've always been a handful, haven't you?"

I wasn't a lonely orphan. I wasn't. I was a wizard! I was… I was…

The fire and pep that had filled me died away and my resolve faded.

"I love you, Harry."

"Stop."

"I love you."

"…"

"I love you."

"You can stop that now," Justin's voice came from a few feet out of my vision.

Elaine fell silent.

The only sounds in the house were Justin's footsteps.

As I laid there, bound and immobile I could do nothing but stare at the roof.

The stars had been so beautiful. They were so far away, but I felt like if I had just reached out I could have touched them. My skin began to prickle as a sudden warmth began to fill me at the memory of them.

"Go fetch the canvas satchel from my room, Elaine."

The feeling of emptiness began to ebb as the warmth continues to trickle along my body and drew the cold away. With the absence of absent emotions came a renewal of anger and indignation.

Justin knew how to push my buttons. He and Elaine knew just what to say to sap the strength from my limbs. But that was old Harry. Old Harry who had died fighting. I wasn't going to go down without at least twice the fight he had.

The more I fought and used my force spell, the more I had come to understand it. I understood how it worked, I understood how it could be shaped and changed, and how it was a simple carrier of energy. I could easily fuel it with fire instead. I could do anything I wanted.

So I did.

I began to feed the warmth inside into a bundle of energy in my chest. It began to burn hotter and hotter and hotter until it felt like my chest was going to explode. I took a deep breath and held it for a long second before whispering and pushing out the energy laced within my words.

"Stella. Stella Forzare."

The world was bathed in golden light as energy washed out of my body and crashed against the hardened air that kept my limbs locked in their rigid position. The hardened air around me buckled and with a surge of strength I threw out my limbs, blowing clean through the binds in a super nova of fiery energy that crashed against the walls and roof. There was a brief sound of surprise and pain a mere moment before the entire room spontaneously caught on fire.

"Round two." I gasped out as I pulled myself to my feet.

Only to find Justin on the ground, withering in pain as his skin bubbled and crackled as the fat beneath it burned.

I stared for a long moment, uncomprehending of my mentors state, or the fact the house was on fire.

My lack of comprehension lasted only a few more moments before the heat from the room began to become uncomfortable. Everything was on fire. The walls, the couch, the door frame, the ceiling. They had been hit with such an intense wave of heat that they had spontaneously combusted.

The tarp that had covered the lounge room window bad been incinerated by the blast as well.

The fire quickly dwindled on certain things, such as the walls as it found itself with a lack of quick burning fuel to sustain itself. The couch however was not so fortunate and continued to crackle as the fibers burned away.

All the while Justin stayed on the floor in his agonized state.

"Lea," I said numbly. "Godmother."

The moment I had called her name Lea appeared on the other side of the window and waited there silently for something.

It took me a few seconds to realize what.

"Please come in, Godmother," I said to her.

Lea's lips curled into a pleased smile and she took a step forwards into the house. A cold breeze poured into the room as she did, along with a mist that crept up the walls and crawled over the furniture, extinguishing the fires between her and I.

"I am quite impressed," Lea spoke, her voice soft and lilting.

"You were watching?" I asked her and swayed on the spot, barely able to keep standing. The adrenaline began to drain out of my body and I felt almost as tired as I had been when I had taken out Justin's assassin.

"Of course." She smiled at me with a sort of girlish delight I'd never seen on her features. "For a brief moment you had me worried, sweet child. But you do not disappoint, do you?"

I stared at Lea for a long moment, wondering if she had any idea what I was feeling at that moment. Because for the life of me I couldn't find it in myself to feel anything but cold numbness. I gave her a tired smile. "I've been known to get it right once or twice."

Lea stopped beside me and her eyes seemed to lose all warmth in them as they turned down to Justin. She stared down at him for a long moment and I could almost feel her evaluating him.

Lea made a sound of contempt and turned to me smiling. "You are victorious," she told me, her voice calm and collected. "As such, the bargain must be completed and payment must be made."

I nodded slowly. "He's all yours, Godmother, do what you want with him."

Lea's golden eyes gleamed and the fires in the house that remained cast a depth in them that I would rather have not seen. Her pupils seemed to get wider and her cheeks became ever so flushed.

"Yes," she breathed out. "What I want." Her tongue peeked out and moistened her lips. "Would you assist me, Harry?"

"With what?" I asked.

A silvery blade that drank in light appeared in her hand. It was fairly plain and unremarkable except for the dark red stains that covered it's blade.

"I would have you exact your vengeance to the fullest extent," Lea said to me, her breaths coming quicker as she spoke, her cheeks flushing deeper. "Offer him to me," she told me.

I stared down at the blade in her hand for the longest time.

She was asking me to kill him.

She was asking me to kill him when he couldn't fight back.

I would have happily killed Justin in our fight. But did I have it in me to do so in cold blood?

I felt so tired and empty. I just wanted the day to be over. Justin's burned and charred laid there on the ground, twitching every few seconds. At this point leaving Justin alive may not have been any more merciful than killing him. In fact it would be quite the opposite.

When I'd broken free from Elaine's spell, Justin had been caught in the backlash and it had ruined him. The sheer agony he must have been in, even at that very moment must have been immense. He'd always had a strong will and could take pain with the best of them. Yet he wasn't making a sound. He gave no signs he even knew I was there.

In the end I decided to be merciful, for both him and myself.

I took the knife from Lea's hand and grasped it tightly in my own. It weighed a lot more than I thought it would.

"Do not cut yourself with the blade," Lea told me. "Bring him here, and slice his throat." She pulled a matching silvery bowl that wasn't quite normal. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end; it was also stained scarlet.

This was getting to be some pretty macabre shit. Never mind the fact that Justin had been cooked inside his own skin, we were going to bleed him out as well?

I felt detached as I did it, like I was watching someone else in my own body.

"Do it slowly," my Godmother told me, her eyes gleaming with arousal as she held the bowl beneath Justin's throat.

I did it slowly. The edge of the blade touched upon Justin's throat and I moved the knife.

It took a lot longer than I had expected, but Lea never spilled a drop.

We were silent as it happened.

When she stood up and stepped away, I let go of Justin and his body fell to the floor with a dull thump. I stared down at my late mentor, unable to comprehend what I had done. I just felt numb to it all.

"Sweet child," Lea's voice murmured from somewhere near me and I felt something soft and utterly feminine press against my upper back before I was embraced in a soft, warm hug. Lea's hands found mine and took the scarlet blade from them, before they pressed against my chest and began to roam.

I couldn't help but let out a gasp as I felt Lea's lips press against my neck, and a burning sensation rippled outwards that seemed to inflame my nerves and spark something akin to pleasure.

"L-lea?" I stammered, coming to my senses as I felt Lea's hands begin to roam further than I had ever expected.

A faint chuckle came from Lea's lips as they rested against my neck. "It is almost time," she said to me softly. "You did wonderfully."

"Almost time?" I asked, my voice soft and confused. "What do you mean?"

"She comes," Lea told me softly, her tone almost what I would call affectionate. Her hand came up and gently touched my cheek, her fingertips trailing over it.

It took me a moment to realize what she meant. The strange sixth sense I had gotten since I had become a devil was suddenly becoming a lot stronger. Whatever it was sensing was getting closer by the second.

In front of me a vaguely familiar magical circle suddenly flared to life on the ground and began to rotate. There was a flash of light and in an instant an almost familiar figure appeared before Lea and I.

"Harry!" An irritated, if lovely voice shouted out my name petulantly. "Why did you leave!"

Serafall Leviathan, the devil that had either saved me from death, or had brought me back to life, stood in front of me. She looked every bit as lovely and cute as she had when she first appeared before me. Unfortunately she was still in her costume and looked every bit as silly and childish as I remembered, so any sense of tact I had was not likely to survive the next words that came out of my mouth.

The devil-girl's light blue eyes widened dramatically as she took in the state the house was in, and the dead body on the ground. She gave a sound of shock and spun to face me. "Harry! You set the place on fire again!" she exclaimed, pointing at me.

"…I have no response to that." I admitted. "It was my fault."

The devil blinked twice and suddenly realized that there was someone else present, and that someone else was currently wrapped around me rather intimately.

Serafall's brow furrowed and she stared over my shoulder at my Godmother for a long moment. "I know you," she said, the traces of levity in her voice suddenly gone.

The sudden change over her caused a wariness to overtake me. It struck me like lightning the next moment when I realized that it hadn't been her voice that had set off alarms in my head. It was a subtle building up of power in the air that did it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Leviathan." Lea's voice was as cool and polite as I had ever heard her.

The twin-tailed girl's eyes widened and a sudden realization hit her, before her eyes narrowed significantly. "…You're Mab's handmaiden," she said much to my confusion.

I blinked and turned my head, looking at Lea and mouthing the name in confusion.

"I come in peace," Lea said smoothly, her hands dropping from my chest and face as she stepped around me. "I am merely saying good bye to my godson." Her hand trailed along the back of my shoulders before dropping off.

Serafall blinked rapidly in confusion and the sudden buildup of power vanished. "G-godson?" She stammered, her eyes wide as she looked between Lea and I rapidly. "You're a fairy godmother?" she asked in disbelief, looking at Lea as if she had grown another head.

Lea all the while continued to smile. "It is so, I owe you my thanks for saving this sweet child from death," Lea said cordially. "They are fortunately tempered by the means of which you saved him."

"Hmph." The devil girl folded her arms across her impressively sized chest and gave Lea a look of annoyance.

"I do not dispute your claim to him," Lea continued to say. "All I ask is that you allow us to say our goodbyes in peace without interference."

"I'm not going anywhere," Serafall said flatly, practically stomping her feet. "I'm gonna be right here the entire time! You can say whatever you want to my slave with me right here."

I felt the urge to protest and bring issue to what she said, but was beaten to the punch by my Godmother.

Lea's eyes flashed with something ugly and unpleasant, but her smile remained fixed. "Of course, thank you for your understanding," Lea's tone was smooth and diplomatic, but I could tell that she wanted to say something else.

The insight surprised me. Maybe I was understanding my godmother a bit better than before?

Lea turned to me and graced me with a smile. "Time runs short."

"I have a gift for you," Lea told me. "It is yours to do with as you see fit, as long as you do one thing for your godmother."

"What is it?" I asked slowly, almost warily.

"It is something of your mother's," Lea told me with a smile. "Knowledge and understanding."

"I want it." I said instantly. "Whatever it is I want it."

Lea, ignoring my sudden outburst continued on. "It may come at a price."

"You mean other than the one you want for it?" I asked a bit more waspishly than I had intended.

"Your mother lost her ability to sleep soundly. The price may be worse for you, or easier to endure."

My hand reached up and absently grasped something under my jacket that I kept hidden from view. The only thing I had to remember my mother by was the old pentacle that had once been hers.

"I'm a minion of hell," I told Lea flatly. "What could be worse than that?"

The devil who did it made a sound of protest. 'Hey!'

Lea let out a soft chuckle and reached down, grasping my hand and bringing it up. She clasped hers over my palm and I felt something heavy weight down between them. "When you understand what it is, use it to come to me, and I will consider the debt fulfilled."

My Godmother's hand drew away to reveal a ruby. I blinked in confusion and stared down at it for a long moment, before rolling it around in my hand. "..It's a jewel?"

I glanced back down at the gem that sat on my palm and frowned as I realized it was cut in the shape of a pentagon. "I wonder," I murmured and reached up, unzipping my jacket and pulling out my necklace.

"Allow me." Before I could do it myself, Lea took the ruby from my palm with one hand and grasped my necklace with the other. I felt the jewel slot into place and Lea released the bejewelled pentagram. It felt a lot heavier than it had before as it rested against my chest. Lea's fingertips briefly trailed down over it, and then onto my bare chest and I suddenly found my mouth to be a bit too dry

Lea simply smiled at me and inclined her head. "Be safe, Godson. You have a future far brighter than what waits in the Underworld for you.

"Thank you for your consideration, Leviathan." Lea said as she turned to face the vastly shorter Devil.

"Hmph…I don't need thanks from the likes of you," Serafall said shortly. "Get out of here."

"A pleasure as always."

When I looked up Lea was gone, leaving just the blue eyed devil and I.

"You should probably throw that away," Serafall Leviathan told me. "Who knows what that witch has done to it?"

"It was my mother's," I snapped at her.

"Oh, well keep it then!" she said brightly with a grin and practically bounced over to me, causing other things about her to bounce distractingly.

When I had first seen her she had seemed short and I had been sitting down at the time, but just how much had eluded me until she was standing right there with me. It boggled my mind that she had breasts the size that she did considering her frame.

The devil's eyes slipped down and a look of distaste marred her features. "I won't ask, but what happened here?"

"You just asked," I said flatly.

"Oh, well tell me then?" she asked brightly, smiling at me happily.

"…When you saved me. He was the one who sent the creature to kill me."

She tilted her head curiously. "What creature?"

"Never mind." I let out a sigh and hesitated for a moment, before realizing… Elaine had never shown back up.

I turned around and ran through the still smoking remains of the lounge room and ran upstairs.

"Heeey! Come back!"

I barged into Justin's room, only to find it of anyone and utterly covered with brick and mortar from my earlier _knocking_.

I ran into Elaine's room next and found it... Scattered with clothes. Her bag was missing as was a lot of things like he diary, her shoes and other things someone running away from home might need.

My heart dropped in my chest. She had run. I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out and my heart fall right through it. With Justin dead she must have hightailed it out of there. Maybe she had been watching the entire time, or maybe she had fled at the first sign shit had gone wrong.

I couldn't help but angrily kick the door. "God dammit!" I kicked it again and again for good measure.

"Fuck!" I snarled and winced as my foot began to throb in pain.

It took me a couple more seconds before I managed to calm down. I let out a long breath and made my way back to my room. I grabbed a spare bag and began to stuff it full of my belongings that I intended to keep. A few shirts, pants, a book or two. By the time I was finished I realized that I hadn't touched a thing that Justin had bought me. My bag felt decidedly empty.

"…" I stared at my room for a long while before turning and walking out without a sound.

As I reached the staircase a sudden voice caught my attention. "Heelllooo?" it called out from Justin's bedroom.

I stiffened and felt a sudden panic. Had there been someone else in the house?

"Justin? The house is on fire!" It shouted.

I blinked slowly and made my way to the room. I'd heard that voice before. A dozen times over the years, late at night when I had supposed to have been asleep. I had always wondered what it was. Justin didn't have a phone in his room, it would never have worked. Unless there was a magical teleportation spell that he had never taught us—I wouldn't put it past him—no one had ever left the house at night either.

I pushed the door open and stepped in. I looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that moved at all.

"Hello?" I called out with a frown. "…Whoever's there, Justin is dead."

Nothing, no response.

I was about to turn and leave when without warning the eyes of the ornate skull that sat on Justin's mantelpiece suddenly glowed orange. "Justin's dead? Really?" the voice came surprised. "Huh, I don't know why I expected anything else," it said honestly. "You there! Boy! Pick me up, the house is on fire!"

"No shit, who do you think did it?"

I walked over and despite my better judgment picked the skull up. The sparks of flames in its eyes briefly shifted hue before returning to normal. "What are you supposed to be?" I asked dubiously.

"I am a spirit of air and knowledge," the skull boasted and I could practically hear it grin. "Or if you prefer, a working encyclopedia of magic with its own brain."

I blinked rapidly. "…Cool." I murmured and glanced around before stuffing the skull into my bag.

"Mhmph-Hey! Whats with the socks?" it protested. "If I had a nose I'd be throwing up right now!"

I rolled my eyes and let out a snort. "Stay quiet until I tell you otherwise." I said to it.

To my surprise it did fall silent.

I made my way downstairs and found the devil crouched over Justin's corpse, poking him with a stick.

The moment she noticed me she stood up quickly and threw the stick away, turning to smile at me brightly as if she hadn't been poking the corpse of my late mentor. "Hi!" she said quickly. "You ready to go Harrrrry?" she drew out my name and skipped towards me before stopping right in front of me and beaming up at me.

"I'd rather run away and never see you again," I told her honestly.

She actually pouted. "Don't be like that! You sound like my younger sister Sona."

"She sounds reasonable," I said dryly.

"Oh you're going to love her! You're going to go to school together and it's going to be the best time ever!"

I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out. "…School? You've got to be kidding me."

—~—


	3. Chapter 3

—~—

Teleportation wasn't quite what I imagined it would be. I always pictured it as some sort of instantaneous act where you disappeared from one spot and instantly reappeared on the other. In reality it was more like disappearing from one spot, being blinded by a bright light for a few seconds and then reappearing in another place.

And what a place it was.

I'd seen my share of fancy looking rooms in movies and magazines. The sheer majesty of the room put them all to shame. Marble columns of the purest white, furniture that seemed to be fit more for a palace than anything else. The walls themselves were fascinating, they were a fancy suede floral design. There was the scent of something rich and woody in the air.

"Sona!" Serafall exclaimed and practically teleported from beside me over to the desk on the other side of the room.

It was then that I realized that we were not alone in the room.

Sitting at the desk that Serafall had run to, was a girl who looked to be about my age. She had short black hair that was primp and proper and styled into a short bob cut and wore a pair of oval, purple framed glasses. For a brief moment our eyes met. Her eyes were a stunningly pretty violet that I hadn't ever seen before.

Now that I thought about it they looked extremely similar, aside from breast size Serafall was smaller than the other girl. Before we had been teleported by her magical circle she had mentioned her 'younger sister' Sona. But no matter how you looked at it, she seemed older, more composed.

I suddenly felt very self-conscious about my state of attire. Even without the dirt, grass and blood stains I would have felt severely under-dressed.

Beside the desk stood another girl. She was almost a head shorter than I was—which was actually impressive. That put her at a very respectable 5'9. As opposed to Serafall's five foot even. I'm a giant—I notice these things.

She had long dark hair and a sharp, attractive face that was framed by a pair of blue half-frame glasses. She wore a rather peculiar looking outfit. It wasn't to say it was strange, rather it was obscenely proper. She wore a white long-sleeved, button-down shirt with a black ribbon on her collar. A black shoulder cape and a matching button-down corset completed the look with a deep magenta skirt with white highlights. She also, much to my admiration, filled out her clothes quite well.

They both looked like the kind of girls who didn't startle very easily.

However, the moment that Serafall had called out the girl at the desk looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Her eyes were wide and I would say almost panicked. "B-big sister?" she stammered. "What are you doing here?"

Serafall slipped around the desk and beamed at the other girl. "Sona!" she exclaimed in delight. "What's wrong? You finally get to see your big sister again!" she smiled beatifically.

It took a few moments for 'Sona' to regain her composure. "Sister, what are you doing here?" She looked towards me. "Who is he and what is he doing here?"

Serafall's eyes suddenly widened and she grinned before gesturing for me to approach the desk. "This is… Harry!" She introduced me happily. "He is my wonderful new Knight!"

I was her _what_?

Both Sona and the other girl turned to me, eyes wide with surprise.

"Uh, nice to meet you?" I offered, not knowing what else to say.

What I didn't expect was for 'Sona' to sigh and turn back to her sister. "You must try and restrain yourself and be less frivolous with your peerage. A Devil of your stature cannot simply turn average humans into reincarnated devils."

I felt indignant at being called average, but held my tongue. If she was Serafall's sister that meant she was also a Devil, and I wasn't certain how my usual brand of snark would do me.

"Sona!" Serafall protested. "Don't be so mean. I know deep down you're really happy to see me."

From the twitch in the girls left eye I imagine it would have been very deep, deep, deep down that she was happy to see her. "Why did you bring him here?"

The pink magical girl beamed at her younger sister. "Well~ Harry accidentally blew up a petrol station and killed someone so, I was wondering if you could talk to the Principal of your academy and get him a place here?" Serafall clapped her hands together and continued to smile as she tilted her head. "Please?"

"Absolutely not," Sona said sharply. "You cannot simply do as you wish and take people from their family, sister!"

"I don't have a family anymore." I said, without thinking.

"Pardon?" The strict looking girl looked to me, a tinge of surprise on her features.

"My step-father tried... He tried to do something to me," I said, my voice soft and almost dull. "I ran away and he sent a monster to kill me. I managed to kill it but…" I smiled at her listlessly and gestured to Serafall. "She saved me."

"Right! Right!" Serafall bobbed her head quickly and smiled at me happily, delighted that I was backing her up. "It was horrible, Sona! He had been stabbed right through the chest with an iron thingy! And the monster blew up the entire petrol station!"

I hesitated for a moment. "Well, actually that was me."

Serafall, Sona and the third girl who had remained silent this entire time stared at me.

"Really?" Serafall looked at me, suddenly very impressed. "Amazing! I knew you had killed that bad man when I came to find you, but I never knew it was you who blew up the petrol station!" She paused and her eyes widened. "Did you do the same thing that you did to flash-fry that man who tried to kill you? Oh! He was your foster-father!" she exclaimed and looked delighted that she had figured it out.

I looked back up at the girls, expecting to see judgment and disgust at what I had done. Instead I found curiosity.

Sona's gaze swept from me back to Serafall. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt," she said reluctantly. "But, sister, you must understand, he is going to need a place to stay. He will need money to buy food as well as for personal belongings such as clothes. I know that you've never had a member of your peerage as young as," she paused and looked to me.

"Sixteen," I answered awkwardly. She made it sound like I was a pet.

"Sixteen," Sona continued. "It is a lot of responsibility."

At the 'R' word Serafall suddenly looked a lot less certain of herself. "Well…"

"And of course," Sona continued mercilessly. "You must also take into account his training as both a Devil and a member of your peerage. Do you have the patience for that?"

Serafall looked much like her sister had originally at our arrival: A deer caught in the headlights. "W-well," she said after a moment. "I can think of something…"

"I'm not looking after him for you," Sona said instantly, causing her older sister to deflate. "I am happy to arrange a place for him in the school but the rest of it is going to be your responsibility."

"Aw, Sona…" Serafall pouted sullenly and folded her arms across her chest. "You're always so mean to me!"

I couldn't help but stare at the two sisters. This hadn't been what I had expected at all. Where was the fire and brimstone? Where were the pools of lava and the trident wielding red-skinned goat-men?

"This isn't how this was supposed to go at all!" Serafall protested. "We were supposed to totally run into each other's arms and be all like 'Big Sister!' 'Sona!'—and—and there were going to be flowers!"

The energy that had been sapped out of Serafall by her younger sisters calm, cool and analytical words burst back onto the scene and the high ground had been reclaimed.

She turned to the other girl in the room and started talking. "Tsubaki! Sona is being so mean to me! I thought she'd be happy to see me!"

Tsubaki took it in stride and smiled at the shorter devil politely. "It is a pleasure to meet you again, Lady Serafall." She bowed politely to her.

"Ahahaha!" Serafall laughed happily and waved her hand dismissively. "It's Leviatan! Leviatan!" she insisted.

"S-sister!" Sona pushed her chair back and stood up from her desk. "I am the student council president here! Even if it is after school hours—and you may be family but I cannot approve of your conduct—or your manner of dress!" As she spoke her voice got firmer and louder.

"B-but Sona! You know how much I admire magical girls!" Serafall exclaimed, stomping her foot before beginning to do some outrageous poses.

"Please show some restraint!" Sona said forcefully. "Japan is a tiny country, if you start getting excited it'll be destroyed in minutes!"

_That_ caused my eyebrows to raise. Considering the past few hours I would be hard pressed to call myself a sceptical, but I hadn't ever heard of anything, be it man, machine or creature that could produce that much destruction. I was starting to wonder if these 'devils' were entirely right in the head.

Still, apparently there was an entire organization of wizards that Justin had hidden from me. Who was the say that there were more things that he had purposefully kept from me to keep me docile and dependent?

"W-wait we're in japan?" I said aloud, startled, drawing looks from the two briefly before they began to bicker again.

"Pardon me," Tsubaki approached me again and in the background the two sisters continued to talk, though it was clear Sona was becoming flustered.

"If you would like I can arrange a shower, and perhaps a change of clothes?" She offered me politely.

I glanced down at myself and sighed before giving her a smile and gesturing to the backpack I had over my shoulder. "I have some clothes, but a shower would be good," I said honestly.

"Very well," Tsubaki said and gestured for me to follow her, before leading me out of the room through a set of doors.

The hallway that the doors opened in to was in some ways as resplendent as the office had been, though less furnished for obvious reasons. There were various doors that lead off from the hallway, no doubt into other rooms, but the doors were all closed. As we walked along I took my time to admire the paintings that hung on the wall.

It was less than a dozen yards before the hallway suddenly opened up into a massive foyer and revealed that we were on the second floor of which there were apparently four. By massive, I did in fact mean massive. There were large Corinthian columns throughout the floor space, holding up the roof.

"Are we really in Japan? Is this really a school?" I couldn't help but ask as Tsubaki lead me down a staircase to the first floor.

"We are, and it is. Kuoh Academy has a long history. It used to be an all-girls private school a few years ago, before it became co-ed." Tsubaki told me in a lecturers voice and lifted a hand up, gesturing to the building we were in. "This was building was constructed in recent years to house the growing student population."

As she spoke I couldn't help but find myself stunned by what she had told me. I'd never been outside America in my entire life. I'd been plenty of places _around_ it back when my father was still alive and he did the traveling magician thing but _Japan_?

She paused for a moment to consider and stopped walking and turned around on the staircase.

"I do not mean to pry but." She pointed to my stomach where the large blood-stained tear split my jacket. "I do not doubt Lady Serafall's honesty, but she has at times been known to exaggerate the truth."

I hesitated at answering her question. "Are you a Devil as well?"

"Yes, My name is Shinra Tsubaki," she introduced herself to me and did an ever so slight bow. "I am the Vice President of the Student Council and also the Queen of Sona Sitri's peerage."

I stared at her for a long moment. "A lot of that went over my head," I admitted. "You're Sona's… Queen? Serafall said I was her Knight right? Is it like a Royalty thing? I'm not familiar with the word peerage either."

"Could it be… that Lady Serafall has told you nothing at all about being a Devil?" Tsubaki's eyebrows rose up in mild surprise.

"Nothing at all, aside from the fact that I am one and I quote 'Her slave'." I said dryly.

Tsubaki's lips quirked ever so slightly. "I suppose I can give you a brief summary as we walk," she decided after a moment, before continuing down the stair case. "If you answer my question, of course."

"That seems fair," I agreed. "I got into a fight with something a lot bigger and meaner than me." My face contorted into a scowl. "It was literally playing with me the entire time. Kicking me around and…" I shook my head. "It crossed the line when it decided to kill someone in front of me." I shuddered as I remembered my sheer rage and the pain that Stan's death had exacted on me. Even then, it was fresh in the front of my mind and it would never fade away.

"The stupid part is, I got impaled through the stomach because I was stupid enough to use fire to try and kill it while it was standing between some fuel pumps. The fire liquefied the tar and metal and set them off. The explosion flung the iron and the rest is history—as was that fungus covered monster."

"Did you say fire?" Tsubaki asked curiously.

"I am—or rather, I was, I suppose, a wizard." I told her honestly, seeing no reason to hide it. "I mean, I can still use magic, so I'm not sure if that matters, Serafall seems to be able to use her own magic. It's pretty impressive as well, I have no idea how to teleport and I don't think my late mentor did either."

I realized I had been rambling, and at some point Tsubaki had stopped walking and was simply listening to me. "Sorry," I said with a smile. "I've had.. An intense day."

We finally reached the bottom of the staircase and she gestured for me to follow her along the black and white marble checkered floor.

"I can imagine," Tsubaki murmured before walking on. "Many years ago there was a great war between the three powers of Heaven, The Fallen Angels and the Four Great Satans, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Leviathan and Asmodeus. During the war many devils died, including the Four Great Satans."

My eyebrows progressively raised with every noun she spoke.

"In the aftermath of the war the number of devils was considerably lower to the point where survival as a species was not certain. Ajuka Beezlebub came up with a solution and created a system by which other species could be resurrected as Devils. It is called 'The Evil Piece' system." She turned to me once more. "When Lady Serafall resurrected you as a devil, she placed a chess piece on you, by what she has said, she used one of her Knight pieces." Tsubaki brought a hand up and lightly touched the middle of her chest. "I, like you was also resurrected to be a Devil, however the Queen piece was used."

"So that's what the chess piece was?" My eyebrows rose up. "Why chess pieces?"

"…Lord Beezlebub is rather eccentric," Tsubaki admitted hesitantly. "He has not divulged the secrets of the system to anyone, and there are many things we still do not know about how they work. Simply, each high-ranking Devil is given a set of pieces by which they may turn those they find worthy into Devils."

Tsubaki stopped by a door and gestured. "This is the entrance to the club houses. When you join the school you will be asked to pick a club for afterschool activities. There are a great many choices, such as tennis, fencing, swimming, lacrosse, baseball, football and even the school debate team." She pushed open the doors that lead in and continued walking.

I shifted the bag on my shoulder and followed.

"Where was I? Ah, yes. The different pieces each have unique abilities. The Knight pieces grant great agility and dexterity, while the Rook has the qualities of strength and durability. Bishops provide great magical strength and aptitude."

"Kinda wish I got that one," I muttered under my breath.

She continued on as if I had not said anything. "The Queen piece possesses the abilities of all three of the other pieces. It is by far the strongest."

"What about pawns?" I asked suddenly. "It's based on chess right? That means there are sixteen pieces in total. Eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, a queen and a king."

She gave a nod of approval. "That is quite correct. Pawn's as in the proper game of Chess have an ability called 'Promotion' that allows them to take on the characteristics of the other pieces. As you have also deduced, it is possible for up to fifteen new devils to be created by the use of the system per 'King'."

I mulled over the information that she had given me. "Okay. I think I get it."

"We are here," Tsubaki said as we neared a set of double doors. She pushed them open and we found ourselves outside. The cool night air hit my skin and felt almost refreshing. In front of us a dozen feet away was a large swimming pool that… apparently was not being used. She gestured to the right where a set of doors marked with the telltale signs of Male and Female stood. "There are showers inside," she told me. "I will be waiting for you, do not take too long."

I nodded to her and gave her a smile. "Thank you for explaining that stuff to me."

"It was no problem," she assured me.

I hefted the bag on my shoulder and headed inside, pushing open the heavy door.

The change room looked practically normal. Something I'd have expected back home. Dozens upon dozens of lockered along the wall in one room and a set of showers in the next. I set my bag down and unzipped it. The bleach white skull that I had appropriated from Justin's room sat atop everything else.

I raised my eyebrows and picked it up. "You've been awfully quiet," I told it. "Cat got your tongue?" Lights flared to life in its eyes and I got the sudden feeling it wanted to say something. But if that was the case why wasn't it? "…You can't talk without my permission, can you?" I received no response. "You have my permission to talk." I told it.

"Finally!" it said, it's disembodied voice exasperated. "Do you know how long I've been stuck with your half-washed grime-covered teenager-hormone soaked clothes in my mouth?"

"Half an hour maximum," I answered.

"Well… It certainly _felt_ longer."

"Welcome to my day," I muttered and set it down. "I'm having a quick shower. Try not to talk too much. I'm not sure how a Devil would react to a talking skull."

"Speaking of," the skull immediately interjected. "Those Devils you were talking to certainly sounded perky." Its orange eyes glowed. "Do they look as deliciously cute as they sounded?"

I stared at the skull for a long moment before laughing and shaking my head. "Yeah, yeah they do." I began to strip and toss my clothes aside.

"Egads!" the Skull exclaimed and the burning points of orange in its eye sockets suddenly vanished. "Give me some warning next time _Hairy_."

I opened my mouth to retort before scowling. "Shut up," I told it.

It did.

I headed to the showers, reached into the closest one and turned on the hot water. It took a few moments to warm up enough for me to turn the cold on. Once it hit that perfect spot temperature wise I slipped in.

I lost track of how much time I spent under the hot water. It felt good and made me feel clean, like it was washing away the blood that had never touched my hands. The blood stains that would never go away. At some point I reluctantly began to turn the water off and stepped out.

There was a brief moment of confusion as I realized that I hadn't brought a towel, followed by relief as I noticed a recessed slot in the wall stacked with them. I pulled one down and dried myself before getting dressed in some relatively clean clothes that I had taken from home.

"We'll talk more when I get somewhere private," I told the skull as I grabbed a clean shirt and wrapped it in it. "You're _welcome_." I told it with a smirk before piling on the rest and zipping it up.

As she had told me she would be, Tsubaki was standing just inside of the doors leading to the club rooms out of the cold.

She regarded me with a brief look before nodding her head. It seemed I had past muster. "Shall we?" she offered before turning and walking.

"Unfortunately due to your," she took a moment to find the right words. "Above average proportions, it is likely that we do not have a suitable uniform for you at the moment."

"Story of my life," I told her with a laugh. "Even back home it took a while and half the time I had to rely on adult sizes. Either way I'm happy to wait before jumping into the deep end of the school."

A frown appeared on Tsubaki's lips. "Could it be that you are actually a delinquent?" She turned me and her face was suddenly set in a very stern look, that if I was being at all honest, entirely suited her. She definitely had that 'strict librarian' look going for her.

"What? No." I shook my head before hesitating. "I mean.. If we're being technical."

"This will not do at all," Tsubaki said as her stern look grew even more so. "As a member of Lady Serafall's peerage you must be beyond criticism at all times."

"Is school really that big of a deal here?" I asked, my eyebrows raising up to meet my hairline.

"I can see that I will have to keep an eye on you," she told me.

"Look," I began. "If you're worried about me messing up in regards to schoolwork I can stop you right there. I may not be top of the boards, but even back home I was doing fine."

"From your appearance and your manner of speech, I can only take it that you are American?"

I didn't see where she was going with it but I none the less nodded.

Her lips quirked in faint amusement. "Then I imagine that your skills in regards to the Japanese language are zero in number?"

"Well, it's not like I've ever studied it before."

"Are you aware that we're speaking Japanese right now?"

I blinked. "We're speaking English," I told her.

Tsubaki's eyes glittered and she slipped into what I could only describe as a 'lecture pose'. "We are in fact speaking Japanese," she told me firmly. "Since you are now a Devil you possess the ability to understand and speak all languages."

That was… actually pretty cool.

"If that's the case it shouldn't matter if I can read japanese or not, right?" I rebuffed her point.

"It is purely spoken language that you can understand," she told me before lifting a hand and pointing to a nearby sign above a doorway. "Can you read that?"

野球 分隊

It was all lines and swiggles to me.

"I can't," I admitted honestly.

"Precisely."

"Kuoh Academy caters to a variety of nationalities both human as well as devil," she continued to lecture. "While the majority of students have a well-grounded background in the English language, it is considered very disrespectful to not attempt to put in the effort to learn. The majority of classes are taught in Japanese."

I wasn't opposed to hard work, if I couldn't avoid it and from how she was speaking of it, I doubted I would be able to avoid it. "Alright," I said to her. "I'll make sure to learn it."

Something suddenly occurred to me. When she had spoken about her role in Sona's peerage she had referred to the girl as Sona Sitri.

"Tsubaki, Sona and Serafall are sisters right? So why isn't Sona's last name Leviathan as well?"

"It is a bit difficult to explain, so I will try to keep it as simple as possible. Lady Serafall was originally also a member of the Sitri clan."

"Did she get married or something?"

Tsubaki looked like she wanted to say something on the subject but instead continued. "Lucifer, Leviathan, Asmodeus and Beezlebub are the titles of the rulers of the Underworld."

"So, basically. They're the titles of office, like 'President' and things like that?"

"Yes, however, by accepting a position as one of the Four Great Satans, she, like the others had to give up her claim to her family and thus Lady Serafall became known as 'The Leviathan'."

"That's interesting," I said after a brief moment of silence.

Without missing a beat, Tsubaki returned to the original subject. "I will see about getting you a tutor. Until then please try your best to adapt to our home language."

I would have preferred to decline at that point, but I had no doubt that doing so would cause her to stick me firmly into the 'troublemaker' category. "Thank you."

As we walked back, Tsubaki continued to explain things to me that she thought I might need to know. I held back my opinion that I did not need to know about the Japanese school structure, or that classes started half an hour earlier than I was used to back home. Walking with Tsubaki taught me another valuable lesson, she had no concept of sarcasm whatsoever.

"Really? I can choose both baseball _and_ swimming?"

Tsubaki nodded, oblivious. "Yes, they are spaced out in the afternoon so that it is possible to participate in both. Ah, we are here."

We'd finally arrived back at the room where Serafall and I had appeared. The doors were closed again.

After a brief echoing knock we hear a muffled 'Come in' from the other side and entered.

The first thing that I noticed was that there were only two people in the room, and neither of them were Serafall. Sona sat at her desk as she had been when we had left. The second person was sitting in one of the high back chairs in front of her desk. As we entered the person stood up and turned to greet us.

Everyone's heard the corny line, that when they saw someone that time stopped and they found themselves in a moment that lasted an eternity. I'm not going to say that. The moment lasted for an instant, and in that instant I was stunned by how pretty the girl was. Her most striking feature, was her long, flowing crimson hair. When I say crimson, I wasn't being poetic or flowery, it was literally the colour of blood. She had light skin and as full a figure as I'd ever seen on a girl. The school uniform she wore showed it off well.

Her blue-green eyes met mine and for a brief moment before I forced myself to focus on the bridge of her nose. "Hello, you must be Harry," she greeted me, her accent something vaguely Scandinavian. "My name is Rias Gremory, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

All the snark and sarcasm in the world wouldn't have given me the ability to put a string of words together. "Likewise."

Her eyes glimmered with something mischievous. She began to walk towards Tsubaki and I and stopped a few feet in front of me, her head tilted up to maintain eye contact. She chuckled and set her hands on her hips. It did distracting things to her shirt. "A man of few words," she murmured and nodded to herself.

It seemed my brain finally kicked into gear because my mouth started on autopilot once again. "I find that I pull off the tall, dark, silent and handsome stereotype quite well, why mess with a good thing?"

She threw her head back and covered her mouth as a very feminine laugh fell from her lips. "Yes, yes, I do not believe I'll have any trouble getting along with you at all." Her hand covering her mouth dropped and extended to me.

A sudden panic hit me; It was semi-tilted. Did that mean that she wanted a handshake, or that she wanted me to kiss the back of her hand? She seemed too high-class for a handshake, but at the same time I didn't want to some across creepy.

In the end I clasped her hand and gave it a few shakes. To my surprise, her grip was quite firm. I couldn't help but respond in kind. Rather than let go immediately, she continued to clasp my hand and I began to get uncomfortable as she continued to look me directly in the eyes.

I was the first to break. I looked away to Sona and relaxed my grip, before asking. "Where did Serafall go?"

Serafall's younger sister let out a sigh of what could almost be considered relief. "I managed to convince my sister that between Rias and myself we would be able to deal with your immediate accommodation and enrolment."

Rias finally released my hand and turned back to Sona. "I, as we spoke will of course handle both the immediate and future accommodation for our esteemed new student. I am happy to offer him one of the unused rooms in the Occult Research Club."

I lifted a hand up and thumbed over my shoulder. "You mean in the club thing by the pool?"

"Not quite," Rias said simply, not elaborating any further.

"That should be fine," Sona said, her violet eyes glancing between Rias and I. "I will have the enrolment documents delivered in the morning. If everything goes according to plan he will have his uniforms in under a week. As we discussed earlier, I would appreciate if you would take him under your wing and teach him what it means to be a devil."

Rias beamed at the other girl happily. "Of course, it isn't too much trouble at all."

"Good night, Rias."

"Good night, Sona."

The crimson haired girl turned to me. "Shall we, Harry?" she asked before turning to Tsubaki who still stood next to me. "Have a good evening, Tsubaki."

"And you of course, Lady Rias." Tsubaki said respectfully, stepping aside and allowing Rias to walk towards the door. She turned to me and said. "I will speak to you again once I have found a suitable tutor for you. Good night."

"…G'night, I said to her awkwardly before turning back to Sona. "Good night, Sona."

"Good Evening, Harry Dresden." She said to be simply and turned her gaze down to the papers on her desk.

She was far too young to be able to use that as a way to end a conversation. It didn't stop her though, apparently.

"Come." Rias said to me as she pushed the doors open.

I found myself following her out and couldn't help but admire the view from behind briefly, before forcing myself to catch up and walk beside her. "Thank you for your help," I said to her.

She turned her head as she walked and smiled at me. "It is of course no problem at all. I can imagine you've had a trying day from what Sona has told me."

"That's one way to phrase it." I said after a few moments. "So, I take it you're a devil as well?"

"I am," she acknowledged without missing a beat. "As Sona is next in line to inherit the Sitri house, I am to the Gremory."

"So, does that make you Hell's Royalty or something?" I couldn't help but ask. Sona, despite her… slim figure had held the demeanour and disposition of someone of high-class—when Serafall hadn't been there at the very least.

"Something like that," she agreed with a faint laugh. "If you'd like I can explain a bit of the history of the Underworld to you?"

If I was being entirely honest I would have told her that no, I didn't want to learn more. My head was swimming with everything that had happened today and everything I had learned. But, before I had a chance to politely decline she continued on.

"The Gremory, and the Sitri are part of what is called the 72 Pillars. The others, historically are—" She began to lecture me almost painfully. I half tuned her out as she began to list all 72 'families' of the Pillars. Halfway through the list I began to realize that I recognized a lot of the names she was saying. In fact, I had once read about them all in a little book.

"Aren't those all demons listed in the Ars Goetia?"I asked suddenly, cutting her off.

A brief look of surprise crossed Rias' features before she smiled and nodded in approval. "Yes, quite right. Could it be that you were interested in such things, even before you died?"

"I read it in a book once," I told her honestly. "So there are 72 families of devils?"

A frown briefly touched Rias' lips. "Not quite. Since the Great War more than half of the families have lost the ability to claim a position due to mixed-blood. In addition, there are many more families of devils, who are not aligned with any of the 72 pillars." She paused for a moment. "…Due to the current political climate the majority of them have secluded themselves and are no longer involved in the government."

"…So you're telling me that not only do devils have to deal with politics, but you guys have a government as well?" I couldn't help but make a face at that.

Rias burst out into a bout of breast jiggling laughter that I couldn't help but admire for a brief moment before averting my eyes. From the brief smirk that she gave me, she probably had caught me, but didn't call me out on my glance. "Yes, it is quite the same no matter where you find yourself."

As we continued to walk, Rias began to chat about other things. Things, such as her fascination with Japanese culture that had in the end brought her to japan a few years prior. To my immense surprise, apparently her family owned the entire city. It certainly explained why it was 'no trouble at all' to find accommodation for me.

Rias led me out from the main school building and I found myself walking alongside her in the school grounds that began to lead out away from the main buildings. We were walking along a path that lead to another building a fair ways away. The building in question was rather large, about the size of a mansion. It, like the other buildings were more of a familiar western design. It even had a clock tower.

"…Is that where I'm going to be staying" I couldn't help but ask.

"Of course," came the response. "I had the old dormitories re-purposed when I decided to enrol here. I assure you it is perfectly safe." She gave me a teasing smile.

Even if she said that, I was still getting a creepy feeling. The front of the building was covered with what seemed to be ivy. It gave it a sort of haunted-house feeling.

Rias and I approached it, walking up the stone steps. It looked like there was no one home. The lights inside were off and as we walked under the awning that covered the front doors, I realized I couldn't even see the door handle. Apparently Rias could though, because a second later the doors opened and she stepped inside.

Lights flickered on and I found myself staring into a well-furnished entryway. Victorian-style coaches and chairs lined the walls and a large expensive looking rug covered the middle of the room. There were curving staircases on either side of the room that lead up onto the second floor as well as various doorways that lead to the east and west wings.

I found myself briefly speechless. "…This is your clubhouse?" At her nod I couldn't help but shake my head. "I can't imagine what your home must look like."

"I prefer to stay here when I can," she admitted honestly. "We do have other properties—but I find myself more comfortable here. Though, compared to my room back home it is a bit sparsely equipped."

Through some miracle I managed to hold my tongue and not respond to that.

"The rooms are on the second floor," she told me. "If you'd like to explore for a bit, please feel free." She paused for a brief moment. "There is a room in the west side of the building, it is locked, do not attempt to unlock it." She began to make her way up the stairs, her skirt fluttering with each step.

I caught a brief flash of something dark and lacy before I reluctantly forced myself to look away and muttered under my breath. "That's not ominous at all."

As Rias vanished up the stairs, I took a moment to look around and take in the sights. Justin had been well off, but I doubt on his best day he could have afforded a dozen solid gold-framed paintings.

For the briefest of moments I considered exploring a bit, but the haunted-mansion vibe I was getting was a bit too strong.

In the end I headed up stairs and with a cursory glance along, found my way to what I assumed was Rias' room.

The door was shut, but there was light visible beneath the frame.

"Rias?" I called out and knocked on the door.

There was silence for a few moments before I heard a muffled 'Come in' from the other side of the door.

I pushed the door opened and stepped in, only to find myself briefly impressed by the sheer size of the room beyond the door. On the other side of the door was a large circle in the middle, surrounded with symbols that looked very familiar to me. It took me a few seconds to process them and realize that they were very similar to the ones that had been on the flyer that I had been given.

Beyond it was a dark purple rug that took up most of the centre of the room. Two Victorian-style couches were set up facing each other in the middle of it, a square coffee table between them. The rug looked thick and soft enough that if I were any more of an American heathen, I'm pretty sure I would have taken my shoes off and walked around on it, just to feel the sensation of the piles between my toes. The couches looked every bit as inviting, and the whole place had that polished, aged wood scent that took it from just another room to a warm, comfortable den.

Even further away was a desk. It, like everything else in the room was an expensive well carved piece. Behind it, on the wall more paintings hung.

There were several candle holders around the room, one in the middle of the coffee table, one on the desk, and a few others lining the wall. They were all filled and all burning, casting a warm orange glow upon the room.

The windows were shut and a rich dark fabric made up the curtains, held back by tassels of gold thread.

I found Rias standing beside one of the couches, her shoulder-cloak laid over it, her corset half way unbuttoned. She looked to me with a bemused smile. "That was rather quick."

"I'm not much of an explorer," I admitted after a brief moment. "If it's all the same to you I'd prefer to lay down sooner than later."

"Of course," Rias acknowledged and proceeded to continue unbuttoning her corset.

My eyebrows raised in response as she took it off and laid it over it over the the head of the couch as well. For a brief moment I thought she'd stop there. Those hopes were dashed and my heart gave a stuttering leap as she reached down and unbuttoned the clasp of her skirt.

"Should I, uh, wait outside?" I asked awkwardly and with a supreme effort of will forced my eyes up from her waist to her face.

The crimson haired devil looked back at me, her bluish eyes apparently unconcerned. "It's fine," she told me and drew off her skirt, gesturing to the couches with the same hand. I did my utmost to follow said hand as it pointed, and not look at her pretty legs, or acknowledge that her shirt ended barely below the start of her panties.

Unfortunately, I was only human and my eyes did not always do as they were told. The flash of black I had seen on the staircase, was in fact, a pair of rather fancy and tasteful black panties, complete with a set of sheer half-circle cut-outs along the top of the band.

"R-right," I managed to say, my voice briefly cracking despite my very earnest attempts to keep it level.

Was this a test? Was she testing me to see what I'd do?

She seemed entirely unconcerned with my presence as her hands drew up to to her shirt and began to unbutton it. I lasted long enough to catch a glimpse of a matching sheer-fabric before I averted my eyes and turned around. "I'll go explore for a bit," I told her quickly and made a hasty retreat.

I shut the door behind me without another word and let out a long deep breath.

What was _that_?

Had it been a test like I thought it was? Even Elaine had never done something like _that_. It had taken all I had in me to look away and even more to step out of the room.

Or maybe I had just made the worst mistake in my entire life and walked out on something that quite frankly many kids at my old school would have literally killed for.

For a brief, fleeting instant I considered if it had counted as cheating on Elaine, but that voice was silenced abruptly by my inner caveman and the nasty twinge in my chest at the thought of what she had done to me.

My heart thudded rapidly in my chest and I couldn't help but glance back at the door.

"…I'm an idiot." I muttered under my breath and shook my head, before walking away from the door. "A hot girl literally strips in front of you and you aren't man enough to appreciate the view."

Sometimes I disgusted myself.

"Hello," a quiet, unassuming voice suddenly spoke a few feet in front of me.

I flinched and spun around, having a miniature heart attack.

Standing there in the middle of the hall was a small, slim girl about as tall as the bottom of my ribcage. She had white hair—not light blonde or platinum—it was literally the colour of fresh fallen snow.

"Who are you?" Her amber eyes stared up at me, lacking any distinct emotion.

"…Are you a ghost?" I couldn't help but ask.

A brief moment of irritation appeared in her eyes.

"I'll take that as a no," I said after a brief moment. "I'm Harry. Who are you?"

"Koneko Toujou."

"Are you looking for Rias? She's getting changed right now," I told her.

She remained silent and continued staring at me. It gave me a moment to take in more of her appearance. She was a petite little thing, I doubted she was even out of middle school. With that said, she wore the same uniform as Rias, Sona and Tsubaki, so unless the school catered for a wider range of ages than I had assumed, she was definitely in High school.

"…Devil?" She spoke after a brief moment.

"You as well?" I said after a moment and gave a soft laugh. It should have been obvious from the get go I suppose. "Are you a member of Rias' peerage?" I asked, taking a moment to remember the term Tsubaki had used.

"Yes."

More staring in which I was forced to make an effort not to get swept up into a soul gaze. She was pretty unnerving.

"You don't say much, do you?"

"No."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "You know, I appreciate it. I think of myself as the tall, strong, silent type. When I'm not talking, that is."

Another flash of irritation passed through her eyes. I took it as a sign that she was in fact, not quite amused at my jab at her height.

Now that I had gotten over my initial shock at her sudden appearance, she was actually pretty cute. She had a heart shaped face with delicate features that seemed more appropriate to doll than anything else. Her hair was styled into a bob-cut which, at the front, had two long bangs framing her face that came down to her shoulders. She also had a hair clip with a cute little black-cat face on it.

"I don't suppose you'd know where the bedrooms are?" I finally asked her after a few moments.

"Yes." Came her one word answer.

It took me a few seconds to realize she wasn't going to tell me without me asking. "…Can you show me?"

She stared for a brief moment. "Wait here." She told me and walked past, before opening the door to the room I had just left and closing it behind her.

Five seconds later she reappeared and lifted a hand up, pointing down the hallway. "Other side."

"Thanks," I said to her and hesitated for a moment. "Koneko," I added, giving her a smile before turning away and making my way along the hall. After passing the stairwell, I glanced back and saw her staring after me.

I quickened my pace and as I reached the first door and tried to open. Tried being the key word; it was locked.

I continued down to the next one, and encountered the same problem. Eventually I found one that was unlocked.

The room itself was, as with everything else, richly decorated. Like the room I had found Rias in, it was also illuminated by candlelight. Wardrobes lined one of the walls and a large queen-sized bed sat against another. It was draped in warm looking linens and had a large canopy that was a deep burgundy colour. There was a desk by the window that felt almost out of place with how understated it was.

I closed the door behind me and dropped my bag onto the desk and fished out the shirt-wrapped skull that I had stashed in it. "Alright skull, you can talk again." I told it.

The orange pinpricks of light appeared in the empty eye sockets again. "What's this I hear about you walking out on hot naked girls?"

"I thought she was messing with me." I said defensively.

"And that is supposed to have stopped you?" The skull said dubiously.

I opened my mouth to retort, only to find that I had none.

"What's your name anyway?" The Skull suddenly asked.

I frowned and sat it down on the desk, before pulling the chair out and sitting on it. "Harry. You?"

"Don't have one," it told me. "Over six hundred years of magical knowledge and they never bothered to give me one. Never needed one really."

"You're pretty old, huh? That sucks." I said, adding on "the name thing, I mean," after a moment. I'd been taught names were a pretty big deal in the world. To have lived six hundred years and not been given one sounded pretty bad.

"Do you want a name?"

The pinprick lights in the skulls eyes seemed to still for a moment, which I took to mean it was considering my question. "What did you have in mind?" it asked curiously.

"Well you don't look like a Clarence to me, or a James." I told it as I sat back on my chair.

It occurred to me, at that moment that I was having a conversation with a talking skull, in a bedroom inside a building owned by a Devil, inside a _school_ owned by said Devil's family on the other side of the world from where I had lived my entire life.

The situation was so outlandish that there hardly seemed to be any point in freaking out about it. That wasn't even taking into account the whole matter which had led to my current situation. Maybe it was a simple case of me still being in shock, or perhaps Devils didn't feel emotions the same as humans?

I sighed. "How about Bob?"

"I like Bob," the Skull said after a brief moment. "Bob," it rolled the name off its non-existent tongue. "Hm, Robert—no, no, perhaps… Roberto?"

The skull began to run through variations on the nickname.

Was this really Justin's magical library? I always knew he had one. I figured it was an actual library though, not a skull that could talk.

"Bob," it finally declared. "It shall do nicely. Nice to meet you Harry, I'm Bob." It introduced itself to me.

"Nice to meet you Bob," I said to it. "Now what the hell are you really? How do you work?"

The orange pinpricks of life seemed to grow briefly and for a brief second looked almost like candle flames in its eye sockets. "That's rather rude of you," it told me, its voice annoyed. "I didn't ask you why you burned down the house, did I?"

It paused for a brief moment. "Why did you try and burn it down?"

"If I tell you, will you tell me?" I asked after a brief moment through clenched teeth.

"I don't see why not," the skull spoke lightly. I could practically hear the smirk.

"Justin tried to do something to me, and then sent a monster after me." I told it calmly as I could. "I killed the monster and then went back to kill Justin, are you happy?"

"Mostly," Bob the skull admitted. "Explains why he was asking about the most suitable method to enthral young wizards, considering you burnt his house down and killed him!" It let out a laugh that actually rattled its teeth.

Something in my chest twisted. "Enthral?" I whispered out.

In my head, pieces started to click together. Justin had never really taught Elaine and I much about mental magic, but once Bob had said the word out loud it wasn't terribly hard to work out the rest. I honestly hadn't imagined something like that was even possible, but I should have.

A sudden creaking sound seemed to fill the room.

"Woah! You look a bit homicidal," the skull told me. "You need to calm down, have you tried yoga? I hear it's all the rage in India this century."

It wasn't until Bob the Skull spoke that I realized the sound was coming from me. I had been grinding my teeth together.

I managed to pry my jaw open and stop the sound briefly. Words failed me. I had thought I had been emptied of all my anger and rage when I had taken the blade to Justin's throat. I thought that all I had left was regret over the monster I had become from having everything taken from me.

My body trembled and it was all I could do not to stand up and start smashing things. To scream until my throat gave out.

"Elaine…" I whispered, my voice hoarse with rage. I closed my eyes and took in a too deep breath. She hadn't betrayed me. She'd been acting too strange. It made too much sense. She hadn't been _sick_ that bastard had enthralled her.

Then why had she run?

Deep, deep, down I knew the answer.

She ran because she saw me bleed Justin's desiccated body dry in the still burning wreckage of our home. Had the entire thing been a dream for her? Had she simply woken up when Justin had died and come down stairs to see me?

But she _had_ to know that I would never do anything like that without a good reason. She just had to.

I felt something cool run down my cheeks. It took me a few seconds to realize I was crying again. I cradled my head in my hands and began to sob quietly. The weight of everything that had happened was too much. It was all too much. I just wanted to go back to how things were.

I was in a strange land and I had no idea where I was going. There was no certainty left in the world for me.

I didn't know who, or what I was anymore.

"Well, this is awkward," Bob said from where he sat on the desk. "It must suck to be a teenager, look at you, all saturated in hormones, nasty stuff if you ask me."

"On the bright side there's the hot bothered teenage girls," I could practically hear it salivating. "Beautiful things, too young to know better and just old enough to enjoy it!"

I couldn't help but look up at the skull in mild disbelief, the tears streaking down my face continued unabated.

"Now, where were we?" It muttered. "Ah yes, I am a noble Spirit of Air and Intellect," it boasted. "I've been assisting wizards since before you were a sparkle in your great, great, great, great, great, great, great—there are a few more greats in there but you get the idea," it said.

"The stuff I've learned about magic and haven't forgotten would make your head explode," it told me.

"R-really?" I managed to form a simple word after some effort. I took a shuddering breath and tried to ignore my inner turmoil.

"Yes," the skull said, pleased with itself for some reason I didn't know.

"Could you teach me?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

"I don't know," the skull said dubiously. "You have a bad track record with teachers, you told me you killed your last one."

"Do you intend to enslave me or kill me if that fails?" I asked the skull bitterly.

"No, why?"

"Then I don't think we'll have any issues, do you?" I pointed out, feeling as if I was talking to someone with a worrying level of smartassery under their belt.

"If you put it that way, then no." Bob mused and it's glowing eyes regarded me. "I require certain… considerations," it told me.

I could already tell I wasn't going to like where this was going. I reached up and wiped the wetness off my face with my sleeve. "Like what?"

"My legs get cramped from time to time," It told me. "I want out."

"You don't have legs," I pointed out, giving it an odd look. "You're a skull."

"_I_ am not a skull. This skull is merely a sort of shelter," it told me, it's voice tinging with distaste. "The first wizard I assisted was a right bastard," it told me. "Etienne tricked me into this skull, he said it was somewhere I could hide out during daylight. What he failed to mention was he included binding spells inside it that meant I had to obey whoever owned it."

"So… you have to obey whatever I tell you?" My eyebrows raised up.

The Skull was silent for a few moments. "No?"

I stared at the skull for a long while in silence. I couldn't imagine spending six hundred years stuck in a skull, being forced to listen to people like Justin. I think it would have driven me insane.

"Let's make a deal, you and I," I finally spoke to the skull. "You… teach me magic and I'll find a way to get you free from the skull."

"No thanks."

Wait—what?

"You don't want to be freed?" I couldn't help but ask in disbelief.

"Not really, I like it here," it told me. "It's cosy for the most part and it's worked well for me for a while. I didn't buddy up with Etienne for kicks, you know." It told me. "I had a slight misunderstanding with the Winter Queen and had to run away from the Nevernever."

"What kind of misunderstanding?" I asked curiously.

"The kind where she erases your existence and your name is spoken in fearful hushed tones for the rest of recorded history." The Skull said flatly. "Listen up, Harry. First lesson. _Never_ have anything to do with the Sidhe. They are nothing but trouble."

"I don't know about that," I said to the skull. "My Godmother Lea is a Winter Sidhe—"

"The Leanansidhe is your _godmother_?" the Skull practically shrieked, it's eyes blazing brightly. "I want out! Get me out of here! Throw me in a trash can! Anything!"

"Lea's not that bad!" I defended Lea vehemently.

"Are you _kidding_? If the Winter Queen was the patron goddess of murder your godmother would be the head acolyte that destroyed entire civilizations to please her! I'm not even being figurative, _she's done that_."

I felt irrationally angry at the slight against my godmother. I wanted to give the skull a piece of my mind, but before I could it started talking again.

"Do you know how the Leanansidhe got her power? She got it by inspiring poets, muses and playwrights through the centuries. Do you know what she does when she gets bored? She inspires people like _Jack the Ripper_.

I mean look at _you_, I bet before today you'd never had even the slightest thought of killing someone and within a few hours Leanansidhe had you slicing your mentors _throat_."

I found myself momentarily speechless. "I—well, the thing…"

That hadn't been the case at all. Even before Lea had appeared I'd already become a Devil.

It took me a few moments to realize that even if I was a 'Devil' everyone who I had met who'd been a devil was innocuous. Sure, they were pretty and had strange quirks—but none of them came close to acting how I had even for a moment.

Was what the skull saying true? I didn't want to believe it. Lea had been there for me at my lowest and had helped me. She'd helped me kill Justin, who had tried and succeeded at killing me first.

That was normal, wasn't it? Avenging your own death?

It took me another long moment to realize the stupidness of that thought. Your average person didn't quite have the chance to avenge themselves when they died, considering they were _dead_.

"Look, you don't have to worry about Lea randomly popping in, she said she didn't want anything to do with Devils." I finally said to alleviate the skulls concerns. Even so, what he said unnerved me.

"Oh, so that's what that is." The Skull mused. "I was wondering why you had a section of your soul mutated. Now that I think about it I've seen similar things before."

"My soul's mutated?" I stammered, suddenly aghast.

"Hm? Oh, don't worry about it," Bob said dismissively. "Compared to most your soul it's almost normal."

"That isn't making me feel better, Bob!" I almost shouted at him. "What do you mean by that?"

The flame-like lights in the skulls eyes seemed to narrow. "Well, spiritually you've been put through the grinder. Honestly it's a surprise you haven't gone insane and started trying to set fire to the world."

I felt a sickening sensation settle in my stomach.

"Oops, that made it worse." Bob commented. "Look, you'll be fine. All you need is a good night's rest, and to get laid."

I gave the skull a disgusted look.

"Don't give me that look," The skull said defensively. "Sex is good for the soul, as is kissing and hugging naked girls."

I just shook my head in disbelief. It'd just told me that my soul was on the edge of breaking and its first thought was that I needed to get laid. Don't get me wrong. I'd wanted sex five minutes after the last time I had had it. But there was a time and a place.

"Look," The Skull said after a long moment of silence. "You'll be fine Harry. All you need to do, even if you don't want to get laid, is stop killing people, messing with outsiders, and having your whole life destroyed before your very eyes."

"…You're an asshole, Bob," I told it flatly, but I couldn't help but give it a weak smile.

"I get no appreciation," the skull sniffed in disdain. "If that's all the thanks I'm going to get I believe I'm done here. Get some rest, you seriously need it."

The orange lights in its eye sockets flickered out and the skull went silent.

I sat there for a few minutes, simply staring at the lifeless skull.

It had no reason to lie about what it said, but at the same time what would have stopped it from doing so? A lot of what it said made sense. Spiritual trauma was a real thing, I'd learned that much under Justin. Considering everything I'd gone through in the past however many hours, it wasn't surprising that that I'd have some nonphysical scars.

Still, the way he said it made it sound like I was going to snap at any minute.

I shook my head and stood up, before stripping my clothes off and leaving me in my boxers. If I had been a smarter guy I'd have remembered to pack some pyjamas, but I'd gone for an extra pair of jeans and a pair of runners.

I pulled back the sheets on the bed and slipped in. The pillow instantly felt damp. I probably should have dried my hair better. I didn't care too much about it if I was being honest.

Sleep didn't come easily. I found myself tossing and turning in the bed.

I was too restless.

My mind kept playing over the events of the day.

He Who Walks Behind. Even thinking about it made my stomach turn. Not even because of the sheer terror its memory invoked. There was something entirely wrong about it. It was something that wasn't natural in this world. Not in the way Lea was, even Lea, despite her impossible self, seemed to belong.

What had Bob called it? An Outsider? It was the first I'd ever heard of it. It somehow felt right though.

After everything that had happened, and everything that I had lost. There had been a single ray of hope.

Elaine was still alive.

She hadn't willingly betrayed me, I was certain of that much.

I needed to find her.

I was practically on the other side of the world. An entire ocean separated us, even if I had known where she was.

What was worse, was that I wasn't something that could be called 'Human' any longer.

I, Harry Dresden was a Knight of the Great Satan Leviathan.

—~—


	4. Chapter 4

—~—

Sleep hadn't come easy, but in the end it did come. The bed helped. It was comfortable, more so than any bed I'd ever slept on. The sheets were soft and warm and felt good against my skin.

Though the blinds were shut in the room, eventually daylight did come, and through the slightest gaps sunlight began to gently pour into the room. I think that was what woke me up. A faint flicker of warm light against my eyelids.

I wasn't certain how long I laid there, my eyes closed in spite of the sunlight. The bed was too soft and too warm to even consider getting out. My right arm in particular felt warm, as did my shoulder.

With some minor amount of effort, I managed to open my eyes and immediately regretted it as the wisps of sunlight stung them. "Hurbgurble," I mumbled something incoherent and shut them again, before rolling onto my side—or at least attempting to.

My arm caught on something remarkably soft and warm and a sound of protest was made from my right. It took me a few seconds to process before I couldn't help but smile. Elaine hadn't snuck into my bed in months.

A sense of relief flooded through me. It had all been a nightmare. A long, horrible, painful nightmare.

"You minx," I murmured with a sound of approval, before turning over, slipping an arm around my girlfriend and drawing her soft, warm body against me. I felt her breasts press against my chest and a thrill of delight went through me as I nuzzled down against the top of her head and breathed in her scent. A subtle jasmine scent hit me.

It was wrong. It was entirely wrong.

Elaine didn't smell like that at all. Elaine's breasts didn't feel like that—they weren't that big.

With a great deal of distress, I forced myself to open my eyes, and found myself staring into a crimson mess of hair. If I had the soundness of mind to panic, I might have. As it was, I found myself staying there, in that same position, arm around the girl's waist, hand resting on the smooth curve of her behind, holding her against me.

As I began to wake up, more and more, I noticed other things. I noticed that the breasts pressed against my chest were amazingly soft and inviting and a lot larger than I had initially felt. I noticed that my hand was on the upper curve of her ass, and I couldn't feel a hint of fabric.

I noticed, that she was utterly, utterly naked.

Then, she noticed that I was noticing.

Rias Gremory, the crimson haired devil began to wake up, only to find herself in my arms. She shifted briefly, before her head began to tilt up and I found that lovely shade of blue looking up at me from mere inches away.

"Good morning," she murmured, her lips parting in a yawn a moment later. The yawn caused her bare breasts to press up against my chest even more. She slipped an arm up from between us and rubbed her eyes.

"Morning," I responded after a brief moment of silence, my voice barely audible.

"Did you sleep well?" She gave me a smile as she asked.

I desperately tried to stop myself asking, but I wasn't able to.

"Why are you in my bed?"

Rias' smile turned languid and she gave a soft laugh. "Well, first of all, it's my bed." Her eyes glittered with something mischievous.

"Oh, that's understandable then." I said after a brief moment. "Sorry?" I offered her, feeling my cheeks redden slightly.

"Mm, I don't think you are."

"Only partially," I said honestly. "I'm pretty comfortable."

Rias' smile briefly turned almost wicked as she shifted her body ever so slightly, causing a slight jostling.

My face probably went neon at that point and any dignity that I had seemed to vanish. I practically teleported off the bed—or at least that had been my intention. My limbs got caught in the sheets and all I managed to do was disentangle myself from Rias and get entangled in them.

Beside me, Rias sat up and let out a soft laugh at my predicament. My efforts to free myself were abruptly halted as my eyes caught sight of her bare breasts, and what breasts they were.

Back home I'd learned through painful experience, the lies a bra told to your eyes when they were under clothes. The moment Elaine had let me see her naked for the first time I had been almost devastated. At the time it had been muted by the fact that she had gotten a lot more naked soon after.

If anything, a clothed Rias did her breasts a grave injustice. Even without the bra's support, the perkiness and swell of those milky white, rose tipped mounds took my breath away.

I knew I was staring and I didn't even care. She'd practically stripped naked in front of me last night and I'd woken up to find her naked in bed with me. By all rights I should have pushed her down and made out with her then and there. At least, that's what my hormones were telling me.

Even as I stared, Rias smiled at me, an amused happiness on her features.

I couldn't help but chuckle and sit up. "Do you do this for all your guests?" I asked, a smile overtaking my features as I pulled myself free of the blankets.

"Only the ones who go to sleep in my bed," Rias told me lightly as her eyes roamed over my body before turning to my face. "Is there any reason you don't look me in the eye?" she asked. "You didn't last night either."

"Well, I've currently got a lot more interesting things to look at," I told her, avoiding the question entirely to take another admiring glance along the curve of her bust.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Rias drew the sheets up against her body and covered herself. "And now?" she persisted.

I could feel her eyes boring into my eye sockets.

"It's a wizard thing," I told her honestly.

"What is?"

I chewed over my response for a moment before asking. "What do you know about wizards?"

"I know a few details about Magicians," Rias said after a brief moment. "Is Wizard a ranking term for them?"

"I don't think so," I told her after a brief moment. "But basically, If a wizard looks you in the eye, and you look at them in the eye you enter into what's called a soul gaze." I told Rias. "It's sort of a onetime window into what makes a person who they are. I've only ever done it with my girlfriend…" I trailed off as the vivid memory of Stan hit me again causing my speech to trail off. She didn't need to know about Stan.

"Sounds romantic," she murmured, her eyes lighting up briefly.

"Sure, if having a memory permanently stuck in Technicolor at the front of your mind for the rest of your life is romantic."

Apparently it was, Rias' eyes glimmered with something intense and utterly feminine. "And you did it with your girlfriend?" she whispered, her eyes wide. "How… wonderful."

I closed my eyes and the soul gaze played over again, a forever perfect reminder of Elaine, etched into my mind just before our first time. "…It was beautiful. She was beautiful."

Rias slipped out of bed, holding the sheets against her front before she turned away and began to get dressed. I glanced at her briefly, my eyes taking in the sights before I turned away and began to get dressed myself.

My eyes came across the newly named Bob's skull and a sudden panic hit me as I realized the lights in the eye sockets were burning brightly. I could practically feel the leer coming off it. They flickered out a moment later without warning.

I glared at the skull briefly, before I reached over and picked it up. I shoved it into my bag, stashing it away at the bottom. By the time I glanced back at Rias, she'd been half way to pulling up her panties. They settled snuggling on her curvy rear and she slipped her fingertips beneath the edges, sliding them along the sides up from the bottom to the top and adjusting them.

"So," I began conversationally, again forcing my eyes away. "Not that I minded at all, but why were you naked?"

"I dislike wearing clothes when I sleep." Came the response. "I find them too restricting." She glanced over her shoulder and gave me a teasing smile. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"I can certainly see the advantages," I agreed shamelessly as I began to pull on my own clothes.

As Rias continued to get dressed, she began to speak to me. "As we discussed last night, Sona will be handling your enrolment at the school. There will be some paperwork for you to do, but it won't be anything too unpleasant."

"Am I supposed to start today?" I asked.

Rias shook her head as she began to button up her shirt. "Unfortunately no, due to your late arrival last night, we will need to inform the schools administration that you'll be joining the Academy." She considered something for a moment. "And of course we do need to get you a uniform."

"If you'd like to wait in the club room, I won't be too much longer," Rias said to me.

"Alright," I said easily and grabbed my bag, before making my way from the room.

I shut the door behind me, and as I did I let out a long breath. That had been a slice of heaven and hell at the same time. On one hand, Rias was without a doubt the hottest piece of naked ass I'd ever laid my eyes on, and don't get me started on the rest of her body.

On the other hand, she made no sense to me at all. It may have been a devil thing, or it may have been a devil woman thing. Either way It had been a surreal way to wake up. Even after having stepped out of the room I felt flustered and hot under the collar.

She hadn't even batted an eye at me mentioning Elaine, or the fact I'd suffered an assisted case of morning wood.

Now _that_ did make me frown. There were a few possibilities. She could have always been a lesbian. Or she might just be a _very_ open person. Or it could have even been a case of she didn't see me as a guy at all.

It said something bad about my self-esteem that after the fact I didn't put any weight on the idea that she might have actually liked me and was just being polite.

I sighed and shook my head as I pushed open the door to the club room and stepped inside.

I hadn't expected anyone to be there.

I think there may have been something in the schools water supply, because every girl I'd seen had been outlandishly gorgeous—or perhaps it was because they were Devils? This newest one was didn't break the rule by any measure.

Sitting on one of the the victorian style couches was a girl holding a cup of something. She wore the same uniform as I'd seen Rias, Sona and Tsubaki wearing. She, like Rias filled it out wonderfully and, If my eyes didn't deceive me, she may have very well had larger breasts than Rias—but then it could have just been the lies of the bra beneath. The girl had long black hair that was tied into a ponytail with an orange ribbon with a generous amount of fringe.

"Oh my, hello," she said, drawing my attention to the fact that I had been staring. She offered me a polite smile that did wonderful things to an already wonderful face and set her cup down on the coffee table in front of her. "May I ask who you are?"

"Harry Dresden," I introduced myself and gave her a smile back. "I'm a… new student, I suppose." I decided on after a moment.

Violet eyes regarded me with a measure of curiosity, and, dare I say it? Wariness.

"Rias told me to wait here for her," I told the girl quickly. I hesitated for a brief moment. "Are you a member of the ah, Occult Research Club as well?" I asked her after remembering the name.

"You wish to know if I am a devil," she spoke after a few moments, her voice polite and gentle. "I am, as are you, I believe."

I felt a sudden relief flow through me and I nodded. "That's right. I kind of got dropped off here last night." I moved out of the door way and dropped my bag beside the couch opposite the girls, before sitting down myself. "Rias was nice enough to offer me a place to stay for the night."

Her eyes regarded me for a long moment before she nodded. "Yes, Rias is a very generous individual. Would you care for a cup of tea?"

"That would be great," I answered with a hesitant smile. Something about her put me on edge.

She took a cup off the tray that sat in the middle of the table and set it down on a saucer, before beginning to prepare it. I lost track around the fifth step and muttered a thank you as she handed it to me along with the saucer beneath it.

I brought the tea up to my lips and blew on it for a moment before taking a sip. "It's very nice," I told her. What I didn't tell her was that my tongue was scalded and ached something fierce from it. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name earlier."

"Akeno," she answered me, her voice soft and gentle. "Akeno Himejima." She picked her saucer up again and her eyes closed briefly as she took a sip of her tea. When they opened again they were staring right at me, heavy lidded. My instincts began to scream at me. Twenty four hours ago I wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails of the feeling, but in an instant I knew the woman across from me was dangerous.

"I do not know who you are, what you are, or what your intentions are, but if you harm a hair on Rias' head know that I will end you." She spoke with the same gentle, polite tone and inflection she had used from the beginning. It created a startling contrast.

I couldn't help but swallow and smile back at her. "Got it," I said and took another sip before setting it down on the table. "This is _really_ nice tea." I repeated awkwardly.

The girl smiled serenely at me. "You're too kind."

The door opened and I caught sight of Rias and couldn't help but mutter something under my breath that equated to 'thank god'.

A sharp pain stabbed through my head without warning and I flinched, spilling the tea in my hands. It scalded my thighs as harshly as it had my tongue and I hissed in pain.

"Oh dear," Akeno across from me said, her voice mildly surprised and, dare I say it, almost deceptively pleased.

"W-what did you do?" I demanded to know and glared across the table at the buxom girl sitting there.

Her eyes widened at the accusation and she brought a hand up to her chest, touching it gently in shock. "Whatever do you mean?"

If it hadn't been for that hidden glint of amusement in her eyes after it had happened I could have almost believed she hadn't had anything to do with it.

"Ah, good morning Akeno," Rias said as she approached and gave me a curious look. "What happened, Harry?"

"I don't know," I said through gritted teeth as I set the cup and saucer on the table and endured the painful scalding as the hot tea soaked through the legs of my pants. "I got hit by a sudden migraine a second ago."

Akeno and Rias both blinked and both broke out into giggles, their hands coming up to cover their laughter.

"Oh my," Akeno's hand dropped down and she smiled at me. "I can explain, if you would like, Harry?"

"Be my guest," I said as calmly as I could, it wasn't very calm at all.

"Did you perhaps pray to God a moment ago?" Her eyes gleamed in a sort of sadists-amusement.

I hesitated for a moment. "Well, not exactly. I mean, technically it could have been taken that way."

Her eyes gleamed and she reached down to pick up her tea, taking another sip. "Did you think it was possible for a Devil to pray to God and not receive retribution?"

I stared at her for a long moment, my mouth opening and closing as words failed me. I hadn't ever considered that. "Well…" I trailed off. I doubted it would have been appropriate to say 'fuck' in front of either of the girls. "I didn't think about it at all." I said after a moment before frowning. "Is that what it was?"

Rias, who stood at the edge of the couches nodded. "For a Devil to pray or invoke the name of God is rather foolish, considering our existence is a slight to his name, don't you think?"

I said nothing and looked back at Akeno. She was inordinately pleased with me having hurt myself. I had no idea what her problem was and I wasn't about to bring it up in front of Rias, who'd gone out of her way to help me.

"I'm sorry for accusing you, Akeno," I said to the violet eyed devil.

"I forgive you." Akeno said, her voice as gentle and serene as ever.

It didn't fool me for a second.

I begrudgingly reached down and picked up a napkin off the table and began to pat down my pants, cleaning up some of the excess tea that had yet to soak in.

"Akeno," Rias spoke as she turned her attention to Akeno. "Did either you, Kiba or Koneko have any luck finding that person last night?"

A brief frown appeared on the violet-eyed sadist.

"Unfortunately no, it seems no one has seen him since the other day. We've managed to narrow down the possible locations that they may be hiding him in, but as of this moment I cannot be certain."

I held back from interjecting and asking what they were talking about. It had nothing to do with me and I didn't want to seem like I was eavesdropping, which I probably was.

Rias let out a sigh and brought her hand up to her temple, rubbing it gently. "It would have been so much simpler if they had just killed him as I had expected them to."

My eyebrows rose up to meet my hairline at that statement. It was cold hearted, and yet somehow I felt no malice coming from Rias. She genuinely thought that that was the best thing that could have happened.

A soft laugh fell from Akeno's lips that actually sounded genuine.

"There is one thing," Akeno said after a moment and pulled a photograph apparently out of her cleavage. "Late yesterday afternoon, one of his friends by the name of Matsuda was boasting about catching him with a girl, her name is 'Yuuma Amano' according to him."

She handed the photograph to Rias, and I couldn't help but look up to try and get a glimpse. The way she was holding it meant that I couldn't.

Apparently my efforts had been noticed.

Rias turned her attention to me and smiled. "Did you want to see, Harry?" she asked, before turning the photograph around and showing it to me.

It was a photograph of a male teenager walking beside a girl who was actually quite cute. It'd been taken candidly through a group of students as well. I took notice of the similar uniform that the boy wore as well as the different one the girl wore. Unlike the other people in the picture, the boys shirt was undone and he lacked the ribbon that seemed to be a part of the Academy's uniform.

"If you see this girl, be sure to run away quickly, alright?" Rias instructed me, before turning the photograph back to herself and staring down at it intensely. "She's very dangerous."

"Who is she?"

"We don't know, but she's the cause of the boy in the photograph disappearing."

"Did you ever consider that maybe they just ran away for a few days to get some 'alone time'?" I couldn't help but ask dubiously. "The first thing I did when I got a girlfriend was stay out late and look for excuses to make out with her."

It took a sudden stab of regret and a realization that I was being too candid and tactless before I thought to stop talking.

"I'm terribly sorry Rias, but may I ask who Harry is?" Akeno suddenly spoke, her head tilted ever so slightly in curiosity.

Rias blinked once. "Oh, where are my manners." She laughed lightly and gestured to me. "This is Harry Dresden, the newest Knight of Lady Serafall Leviathan."

"This… boy is a member of one of the Great Satan's peerage?" Akeno almost sounded faint, as if she couldn't quite believe it. In her defence, I couldn't quite believe or understand it either. But all I felt from her words was a sense of indignation and irritation.

"He is," Rias acknowledged with a nod of her head before vesturing to Akeno. "And this, as you've already been introduced Akeno Himejima, my closest confident and also the Queen of my peerage."

It looked like holding my tongue had been the best decision after all. But, no matter how you looked at it there was one simple truth here.

I did not like Akeno Himejima one bit, and from the look in her eyes the feeling was mutual.

"It would take a long time to explain everything to you," Rias said. "But Issei Hyodou, the boy in the picture possesses what is called a 'Sacred Gear'. The girl in the picture, we suspect is a Fallen Angel who intended to kill Hyodou before he was able to access it." She paused for a brief moment, a frown crossing her lips. "At least that was what we had expected from previous incidents."

"But instead, he's missing." I frowned and considered her words and what she had said previously about him having died being the best outcome. My mind flashed back to when I had died, and what had happened.

It dawned on me quite quickly. "You gave him a flyer, like the one I received that summoned Serafall."

Rias gave me a pleased look and nodded. "Yes, that is right. I had expected the Fallen Angel to simply kill him and leave. If he had enough spirit to live I would have been summoned, however." She frowned once more. "There's been no signs at all that anything of the sort has happened."

Rias let out a sigh and shook her head before smiling at me. "I apologize for unloading this on you, Harry. It's a matter for I, myself to deal with since it has occurred within my families territory."

"It's no problem at all," I assured Rias, offering her a smile right back. "If I can do anything to help don't hesitate to ask. It's the least I can do."

Rias' eyes widened ever so slightly and her smile turned a bit brighter. "That's very kind of you Harry," she said, "But for the moment the best thing you can do is ensure that your enrolment goes smoothly. I wouldn't want Lady Serafall upset at me for something happening to her cute new Knight."

I did my best to resist my blush and I wasn't certain I had succeeded.

"Oh my, how adorable," Akeno said from the couch in front of me.

She was watching me with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes, one hand daintily set upon her cheek.

I rose above the urge to act and ignored her. "Sona said there would be some paperwork for me to fill out?" I asked the red-headed devil.

"That's right, Sona did say it would be ready before classes started." Rias mused aloud. "Would you like to go change your pants perhaps, and then Akeno and I will walk you to the Administration Office?"

"Sounds like a plan," I agreed quickly and stood up, before heading to change.

It took me very little time to change into my only other pair of pants. They weren't as clean and wrinkle free as the ones I had been wearing, but they lacked the tea stain, so it was at least a minor improvement.

When I had appeared before Rias and Akeno again I was reassured that there would be an appropriate uniform ready for me within the day, once I had been measured. It didn't solve the long term issue of everything I owned fitting in my backpack, but I figured I'd burn that bridge when I came to it. From what I had seen the uniform that the school had was probably better than anything I owned either way.

True to her word, Rias and Akeno ended up escorting me to the school office. Despite it still being early, there were already students on the school grounds.

The three of us drew a lot of attention from the student body as we walked. I would have liked to think that it was because of the two girls, rather than the height difference. I'd stuck out like a thumb even back in America, and that was just from being tall. I could see a fair few non-japanese students around—most of them looking fairly European. I did my best to put my nerves out of mind and walked as the two girls chatted.

Eventually I found myself in front of a familiar face behind a familiar desk.

"Good Morning, Rias, Harry, Akeno" Sona Sitri, the younger sister of Serafall Leviathan greeted me politely as I entered with the two girls.

"Good Morning Sona," Rias greeted the bespectacled student president with a beaming smile.

"Good Morning, President," Akeno greeted politely.

"Howdy," I greeted back with a smile, only to receive a raised eyebrow from the dark-haired devil.

"As we discussed last night, I have arranged the appropriate paperwork for your enrolment, in addition I have arranged for a tailor to take measurements for the school uniform." Sona explained to me before looking to Rias and Akeno. "Thank you both for your assistance in this matter, you have both my and my sisters appreciation."

"I'll see you later, Sona," Rias said with a light wave, before turning. She paused briefly before looking to me. "After you finish what Sona has for you, take time to perhaps wander around the city," she offered. "By the afternoon we will be finished in our classes and will meet you back at the club room. I'll arrange further accommodation for you then."

I gave Rias a grateful smile and nodded. "Thanks for all your help, Rias." I said to her, hesitating for a brief moment before adding on. "For everything."

Rias gave me another beaming smile before nodding and leaving.

Akeno bowed politely to Sona, who sat behind the desk before leaving after Rias.

Before the door closed I briefly thought I heard Tsubaki's voice. "Oh Akeno, may I please speak with you for—" Her voice became muffled as the door thudded closed, leaving me alone in the room with Satan's little sister.

"Please take a seat," Sona said politely, gesturing to one of the seats in front of her desk. "I trust you had a pleasant evening?"

"I had a good night sleep," I answered. "And yourself?"

"After I managed to come to terms with your enrolment here and what comes with it, I was able to get some rest." Sona said after a brief moment as she regarded me.

I felt like her eyes were accusing me.

"Well, that's good." I said after a few moments of awkward silence.

"In some ways yes," Sona nodded and gestured to a pile of paperwork that sat in front of her. It was a simple stack of no fewer than half a dozen pages. "Due to your," she mulled over the word she wanted to use for a moment. "Unconventional enrolment, there will be certain sections that you won't be able to fill out. Leave them blank."

She picked up the stack of paper, before reaching over to a pen pot she set the papers down in front of me with the pen on top. "Take your time," she said to me. "I do not have anything else I am required to do for the next half an hour."

I nodded mutely and shuffled forwards on the chair. I picked up the pen and stared down at the details written on the paper for a brief moment before I began to fill them out.

As I did I felt Sona's gaze on the top of my head.

"Do you know why my older sister wanted you to enrol here?" Sona finally asked after a few moments.

"To learn about being a devil?" I offered lamely.

"That is the reason she gave yes," Sona agreed. "However, I'm of the opinion that my sister purposefully chose you to be her knight due to your age. Specifically, because it was similar enough to my own that she would be able to force you to enrol here."

I couldn't help but look up to find Sona still looking at me. I said nothing and allowed her to continue.

"My sister can be… very affectionate at times. It can be hard to deal with." Sona seemed to be speaking more for her own sake than mine at this point. "As one of the Great Four Satan's her responsibilities mean that she has a hard time justifying visiting, which I am thankful for."

Sona Sitri seemed like a very straight-laced, proper person. She'd been thrown for a loop when her elder sister had appeared and had been immediately flustered.

"With you here she has a reason to justify visiting more often, to check in on the progress of you, her Knight."

I could read between the lines easily enough; me being here would bring Serafall, something Sona didn't want. I felt it was particularly childish of her. Family was important. Maybe she didn't realize it because she still had it, but it was the most important thing in the world. I had none left and the new one I had found turned out to be far from idyllic in the end.

I mulled over my response before deciding to be straight forward. "You want me to leave."

"No," Sona said, her voice soft and conflicted. "I believe that education should be a basic right for everyone, no matter their circumstances." She stopped talking for a moment and considered her next words. "If you find the Academy not to your liking, I assure you I will do _everything_ in my power to find you another school where you feel you will be more at home."

I stared at Sona for the longest moment, not knowing how to respond to her offer.

"Something to think about at least." Sona gave me a polite little smile.

"Could you get me back to America?" I asked after a moment of internal deliberation.

"I can." Her answer was simple and straight to the point. "To be clear, I would prefer you take your time to consider my offer."

My immediate thought last night, after I had broken down and sobbed like a little girl, had been how I was going to get home. I'd gone along with Serafall without thinking because it didn't seem like I had a choice at the time, and so far it hadn't been too bad. But I _needed_ to get back to America.

I needed to find Elaine. I needed to make sure she was alright. I needed to make sure she didn't hate me for what I had done.

A bitter smile appeared on my lips briefly. It was all about me in the end. I wanted reassurance from the person I thought loved me most in this world. I wanted her to look me in the eyes and tell me I had done the right thing.

"I'll put it under heavy consideration." I finally said as I looked back up to Sona.

She regarded me from behind those pink-framed glasses and nodded.

I turned my attention back to the paperwork and began to scribble down the information she needed.

Twenty minutes later I was finished. To my great surprise I had been able to fill out the majority of the information that they'd requested. It looked like, in addition to enrolling me in the school, they were going to request transcripts from back home. I wondered how it was going to go over, considering I had up and disappeared without a word and my house had burned down. I couldn't help but feel that getting in contact wouldn't end well.

Next had been a rather non-invasive session with the schools tailor and soon enough I found myself in front of the school gates with a bundle of banknotes in my hand and instructions to return after the school day had ended. I watched as the shorter student president walked back to the school building, and the hordes of students made their way through the gates. Once more I attracted an uncomfortable amount of attention.

"Wow, you're pretty big." A voice suddenly said from my right. I only flinched _slightly_.

I turned and found a girl standing beside me. The first impression that I got was that she looked like a bit of a nerd, and that she was more small than slim. She had large pink-framed glasses and brown hair that had been styled into low sitting pigtails.

"Uh, hi." I said after a brief moment as she made no move to move away or say anything else. "Thanks, I guess," I said to her, offering her a smile as I turned to face her.

"Are you a new student, Mr Bigboy?" she asked, her voice almost teasing.

I found myself unable to make sense of the girl in front of me. It took me a long few seconds to realize that she was probably just a normal girl who wanted to chat with the new guy on campus.

"I am," I told her, smiling after a moment. "Just enrolled this morning."

A small smile appeared on her lips. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Harry Dresden," I replied.

"Are you a yankee, Mr Bigboy?" Her eyes dropped from my face and seemed to size me up.

"Born and raised," I agreed easily. "What's your name?"

She ignored my question and reached up, adjusting her glasses. "Hm... definitely a nine."

She was officially weirding me out, but none the less I couldn't stop my mouth from running on autopilot. "Really? I personally think I'm more of an eight, but I'll take the compliment."

She blinked owlishly and stared at me for a long moment, before an amused smile appeared on her lips. "You're unexpectedly innocent, aren't you?" She giggled and winked at me, before walking by. "I'll see you soon!"

And then she slapped me on the ass. I couldn't help but turn around and stare at her in disbelief as she nonchalantly continued to walk to the school, her pigtails bouncing as she walked along.

"This school is full of weirdo's." I muttered under my breath before turning away and trudging off into town.

It occurred to me, fifteen minutes later, that I had no idea where anything really was and that signs were going to be mostly useless. There was a certain relief I felt as realized I could keep walking forwards in a straight line and eventually I'd find myself in the city area. There were a lot of similarities to back home, and at the same time a lot of differences.

The houses were strangely designed and the cars were odd, bar the few that I recognized.

Eventually I found myself crossing a walkway that lead across a highway. In the near distance were large apartment buildings and an impressive amount of greenery. Beyond it was a fairly metropolitan area. I found myself in the centre of it all eventually in front of a clock tower.

The city itself was pretty developed and from what I could see it extended for a few more miles in every direction. There were large malls filled with shops, entire streets lined with vendors of all sorts. They even had wooden carts parked here and there peddling goods. It was definitely more than that dinky little town I'd lived in had, that's for sure.

Near the middle of the city there was also a medium sized park complete with trees lining the paths and a water fountain. It was where I had found myself sitting and briefly enjoying the scenery. From where I was sitting I could see another water feature down the path. It seemed more like a very shallow pool than anything else.

I had managed to go at least an hour or two without anything out of the ordinary occurring. As far as I was concerned, that was a win for me.

I heard a short cry down the path and immediately knew that I had jinxed myself. My instincts told me that it was best to ignore it, but my my heart and mind told me that it sounded like a cute girl.

I leaned forwards to get a look around the fountain to see what had happened.

I certainly hadn't expected to see a girl, face down, ass up, and lacy whites bare to the world, next to one of the benches that lined the park.

I'd like to think that the glimpse of underwear was what stirred me to action and had be hopping off the bench to help. It made me feel better than to admit the simple truth that I was stuck somewhere in the dark ages with my tendency towards chivalrous behaviours. You know, opening doors, pulling out chairs, running to help a nun before another random passer by caught wind of her unfortunate predicament.

"Are you alright?" I asked as my long legs closed the distance quickly.

Before I got there the nun had righted herself and was sitting on the ground, looking a bit dazed. "I-I'm alright." She murmured faintly.

She was young, far younger than I had expected from the clothes she was wearing. They looked particularly out of fashion, despite the high quality of the fabrics. She wore a dark teal outfit with light blue accents. Atop her head was a pristine white veil with matching accents. I hadn't been able to discern any features when I had been at the fountain, but she was pretty, stunningly so.

Pretty green eyes looked up at me from beneath the white veil.

I hesitated for a moment before leaning down and offering her my hand. I had briefly considered helping her repack her bag, but somehow I doubted she would have appreciated a stranger pawing at her undergarments.

Tiny fingers belonging to her tiny hand grasped mine and I gently helped her to her feet. "Thank you, mister," she said, her voice soft and polite. Her fingers remained wrapped around mine as she looked up to me, and up, and up some more until she was practically looking at the sky.

I smiled down at her and focused on the bridge of her nose. "You're welcome, sister" I told her with a smile.

The veil she wore began to slip off her head, due to the position she held it in to maintain eye contact. Long blonde hair revealed itself and I suddenly found myself appreciating my chivalrous side a bit more. She was a pretty thing, and definitely from somewhere in Northern Europe. Soft gentle features that looked almost angelic in nature.

"Aren't you a little young to be a nun?" I couldn't help but ask.

She blinked a few times, as if she didn't understand the question before it dawned on her what I had asked. "I was raised by the church from an early age," she told me without hesitation and smiled happily. She ducked down and picked up her veil off the ground, gently brushing the dirt from it.

"That's," I struggled to find a word for it. "Cool, I guess."

"I'm relieved though," she said after a moment. "It's a bit embarrassing to say, but I've lost my way. I don't suppose you would be able to help me?" she fidgeted slightly as she asked the question.

She was, in a word, freaking adorable.

"It would be my pleasure, sister," I told her with a smile, before glancing down at her garments that had littered the floor. "So, what happened here? Did you fall off the bench?" I joked, only for her cheeks to darken a shade. "What, really?" My eyebrows went up.

"W-well, I was looking for the church for so long that I began to feel a bit faint." She explained, her gaze ducking down briefly as she let out a soft laugh. A second later a gentle rumble came from her. "I may have forgotten to eat," she admitted abashedly.

I immediately remembered the wad of notes that Sona had given me before I had left the school. "Do you want to get something to eat? My treat. I haven't eaten yet either."

Her eyes widened and a smile of pure happiness appeared on her features. "Oh, that would be wonderful!" She clasped her hands together around the cross that dangled from her necklace. "Oh thank you lord for allowing me to meet such a wonderful kind man, please give him your divine blessings!"

A stabbing pain, similar to the one that had struck me back at the clubroom, spiked through my head and briefly blinded me with pain. By the time my vision cleared, the nun was looking at me gratefully.

As the pain ebbed I managed to return the smile. "Well, let's get your things packed first and we'll find somewhere to eat, sound good?"

She bobbed her head happily before turning to her scattered clothes and beginning to pick them up off the ground.

She seemed like a genuinely lovely girl. One of those pure church people who seemed to only exist in fantasy.

I leaned down and began to help, picking up the articles of clothing that seemed to be innocuous, like dresses, socks and apparently a sleeping gown, before I had realized. Still, she didn't seem to mind and was more grateful than anything as I handed them to her. It took less than a minute to pull everything together and repack it.

"Alright," I said as she locked the suitcase. "Shall we, sister?" I asked, smiling at her.

"Yes," she agreed happily and hefted her suitcase.

"I can carry that for you if you want," I said without thinking about it.

"I don't want to be a burden," the sister reassured me. "It isn't that heavy at all."

"It's not a problem at all," I told her and offered my hand.

She looked at it for a moment before looking up at me and smiling. "You're a really nice person aren't you—I'm sorry," she gave a soft laugh. "I don't even know your name."

"Harry Dresden," I introduced myself and took her suitcase for her. "How about you, sister? What's your name?"

"Asia, my name is Asia," she introduced herself.

"Asia," I rolled her name off my tongue. It was a bit unique. "That's a lovely name."

She beamed at me happily, apparently delighted with the praise.

"Come on," I said to her. "Good things come to those who walk."

"D-do they?" she asked as she quickly began to walk with me.

"Probably," I said with a laugh and smiled down at her. "So, from what you said before, I take it you're trying to find the local church?"

Her smile lessened ever so slightly. "Yes, I was recently transferred here."

I didn't push and simply nodded. "I'm sure we'll be able to find someone who can point it out for you."

Once we'd left the park, it hadn't taken long for us to find somewhere to eat. To be specific, it hadn't taken long before a sudden whiff of something flame-grilled and heavenly had caught my attention. "Say, Asia, do you like Burger King by any chance?" I asked the sister beside me. I couldn't help but grin.

"What's a Burger?" The blonde haired nun asked.

My grin faltered and I felt a sudden pity for the beautiful holy maiden beside me.

Less than ten minutes later we were sitting at a booth, both of us wearing brand new paper-crowns. I had managed to convince her it was part of the experience of burger king was wearing it. She didn't doubt me for a second, it was kind of cute. Still, the pity that I had felt earlier had taken firm place in my mind as I watched her stare down at her still wrapped burger as if she didn't understand how to eat it.

"Open it," I told her after a brief moment and did the same to my own.

She copied me, her eyes widening. "I see! How interesting!"

I gave her a faint smile before picking up my burger and taking a large bite out of it, savouring the taste. "Somethings are the same no matter where you go," I told her through a mouthful.

She mimicked me once more, and a trill of pure pleasure seemed to pass through her at her first bite tiny bite. It was followed by a second, and a third and so on. By the end her chin was smeared with the tomato sauce.

"It's delicious," she murmured as she set down half the burger down. "Is all fast food like this?"

I shook my head. "Burger King is the best," I told her firmly. I reached up and tapped the side of the crown on my head.

Her eyes were wide with wonder and she nodded.

I chuckled and grabbed my drink, taking a long sip.

To my not-surprise, she did the same, picking her own paper cut up and took a drink. What I hadn't expected was for her to briefly splutter. "I-it's burning my tongue!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"You've never had soda before?" I asked in disbelief and shook my head. "You've never lived," I told her frankly.

She pouted slightly, or she attempted to. She had her tongue stuck out and was gently poking the tip. She noticed me staring and stopped with an embarrassed look. "It's strange, but it tastes interesting," she told me abashedly.

"You get used to it," I said honestly.

She nodded, her expression turning serious before she grasped her cup again with both hands and brought it back up to her lips.

It was a fairly fascinating thing, watching the blonde haired sister drink soda for the first time. It was a mixed between amusement at how hard she was trying, and worry that she was going to drown herself.

By the time she finished she seemed a bit more energetic. The sudden intake of caffeine made her look like she was ready to bounce off walls.

Before we left, I pulled one of the staff members aside and asked them if they knew where any churches in town were. I got directions to the only one in town easily enough, though they boiled down to 'Go that way for ten minutes', it was more than we had before.

We made out way out of Burger King and as we did, I received a few looks.

No doubt they were jealous of my superior head wear.

"That was very delicious, Mr Dresden!" Asia exclaimed, giving me a bright smile. "Do you eat there often?"

"Not as often as I'd like," I admitted with a sheepish look. "But probably more often than is good for me."

"I enjoyed the beverage! It was called coke, you said, right?" she clasped her hands together happily as we walked. "I definitely would like to try it again in the future. It was a bit strange at first but it's really, really nice!" She had a skip in her step.

I couldn't help but imagine what a sight we made as we walked, me in my paper crown and Asia, the holy sister practically bouncing off the ground.

It wasn't long before I could see the top of something similar to a church in the distance. It was up on a hillside, along with an impressive amount of tightly packed houses. As we got closer and I saw more and more of the Church, I began to feel a certain tension develop at the back of my neck until I found myself stopping.

Asia continued for a few more steps, before noticing I had stopped. She turned to me, confusion in her eyes. "Are you not coming the rest of the way, Mr Dresden?" she asked me, her voice soft and a little sad.

"Well," I began reluctantly. "I'm not exactly what you'd call Christian." I explained to her. "Not really certain I'd be welcome in your Church."

Asia's confusion cleared up and a warm look appeared on her features. Her hand came up to clasp her silver cross and she smiled at me wonderfully. "All are welcome at a Church," Asia told me, "No matter what religion you are I am certain you will be as well!"

I hesitated for a moment and the tension on the back of my neck seemed to stop building briefly. Somehow I doubted I, as a Devil would be welcome into a Church. "Still." I grimaced at the look she gave me. It was hard to say no to. "I'll walk with you to the front," I told her finally.

The smile she gave me made it almost worth it. "Thank you, Mr Dresden!" she said brightly.

I gave her a weak smile. "Call me Harry."

"Alright, Mr Harry!" she said, her voice filled with warmth. "It is definitely God's will that I met someone as kind as you here in Japan," she told me, her voice utterly confident.

"Must be," I agreed easily and picked up the suitcase again before walking onward.

It didn't take long for up to climb the hill. Though halfway up it seemed like Asia's energy boost seemed to sputter out and she had to take a break by the side of the road.

The tension on the back of my neck had begun to cause the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. At first I thought it had been a mere mental thing, but the closer we had gotten the stronger it had become. Still, compared to what I had endured a day before it was nothing more than an irritant.

Asia eventually got her second wind, and before too long I found myself standing in front of the gate of the church grounds. I hadn't quite noticed it because of how far away we were, but no matter how you looked at it, the church grounds weren't really being looked after. The grass had grown a bit too high, there were stray branches on the lawn and the shrubbery hadn't been trimmed in a while. Still, it was an impressive building. It had no doubt once been a place of great beauty.

"Is this really the place?" I couldn't help but ask, looking down at the blonde beside me.

Asia nodded slowly. "Yes, I'm certain this is the place."

I couldn't help but frown. No matter how you looked at it, this didn't seem right. Or perhaps that was why she was here, to pull numbers and get it up and running again. I didn't feel comfortable leaving the girl here. It wasn't any of my business really, but I doubted I'd be able to sleep at night if I wasn't certain she'd be fine. She was too gentle and kind.

On the other hand, If I entered the grounds I had a feeling I wasn't going to come out of it unscathed.

The dilemma found itself quickly resolved as in front of us, one of the large church doors opened and someone stepped out.

My mouth went dry and I had to force myself to not react.

A young woman stepped out of the church. She had long dark hair and wore a short black dress with a light purple jacket. She had a bright smile on her features. "Ah, Asia! There you are, I was starting to get worried!" the girl exclaimed and began to walk towards us.

My fist clenched at my side. As she got closer there was no mistaking it. This was the girl that had been in the picture that Akeno had shown to Rias.

The girl stopped a few meters away and her eyes landed on me, her eyes briefly flickering up to the top of my head. Her expression seemed to mellow out. "That's a novel hat." She turned to the nun beside me. "Who is this, Asia?"

"Ah, Miss Raynare, this is Mr Dresden, he was kind enough to help me find the church." Asia said happily, praising me.

'Raynare' It looked like Yuuma Amano wasn't her real name after all.

The girl's eyebrows rose slightly before she turned to me again. "I'm in your debt, Mr Dresden," she said to me, her voice mild. "I don't know what I'd have done if Asia had gotten lost."

"It was my pleasure," I said to her before turning to Asia and giving her my best most authentic smile that I could manage. "It was nice to meet you, Asia. I'll try and come see you once you settle in."

Her bright green eyes stared at me for a moment before she smiled and nodded. "Thank you for your help, Mr Dresden," she said to me politely. "It was definitely God's will that we met!" she told me happily.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of the barest sneer on the dark haired girl's features.

I hefted the suitcase and set it down in front of Asia. "Here you go," I said to her. "Be more careful next time." I told her lightly.

"Oh? Would you perhaps like to come inside, Mr Dresden?" the other girl asked with a smile.

"I really shouldn't," I said to her. "But thank you for the offer."

"I insist, really," she pressured, her smile turning almost teasing.

"Thanks, but no thanks." I said to her and gave Asia another smile. "I'll see you around Asia." I turned and quickly made my way away from the gates.

As I did, I couldn't help but frown. Why was a girl like Asia involved with someone who was apparently a fallen angel? Had her entire act been a lie? If I hadn't known from the get go that there was something off about 'Raynare' her smile would have probably taken me in, it had been entirely too genuine.

A bitter smile crossed my features. That would have been right. Still, at the very least I had something I could tell Rias about her missing person. Who would have thought that Fallen Angels would be hiding in a church of all places?

The tension that had been at the back of my neck began to spike and I felt a sudden danger.

"Mr Dresden!" Asia suddenly screamed from behind me and in that instance I felt the tension snap.

My body twisted as I instinctively moved out of the way of something bright and red as it shot through the air towards where I had been. Force pooled within my hand and I threw my hand out, my fingers fanning wide as I targeted the girl next to Asia. "Forzare!" I shouted and the force ripped from my hand like a bullet.

My aim was true, and there was a brief wide-eyed expression of panic on the girl's features before the invisible blast of force hit her hard in the stomach and she literally blasted her off her feet. She slammed into the shut doors of the church building and they were blown wide open. The wood splintered and a loud crack echoed as she shot through them and went tumbling into the darkness of the church.

My chest heaved and my body twitched as a surge of adrenaline rushed through my veins.

Asia stood there. Eyes wide and in disbelief at me, before she turned and saw the state of the splintered state of the church doors.

A second later it hit me. I'd _hit_ a girl. I suddenly felt appalled with myself. I'd never hit a girl before. Except for Elaine, and that was because she asked me to. It was more spanking than anything if I was being honest.

"Well, fuck." I said and swallowed as I watched something move in the back of the church.

"M-Mr Dresden," Asia stammered in disbelief, turning back to me.

"She tried to kill me first!" I defended myself quickly, before I grimaced. "I'm sorry Asia," I told her softly. "The truth is, I'm actually... Not quite human anymore."

"What he means, is that he is a filthy devil."

Loud footsteps echoed out of the open doors of the church, and Raynare, the Fallen Angel walked out of the darkness of the church. She looked impeccably dishevelled. Her dress had been torn in more than a few places, especially around her impressively stacked chest—I could see a nipple. Her hair was a mess of splintered and all out of place and her eyes glared at me hatefully.

Asia gasped and her hands flew to her mouth covering it in disbelief. "I-is it true, M-Mr Dresden?" she whispered, not quite believing what she was saying.

"To be fair," I said after a brief moment, keeping my eyes on the indecently exposed enemy in front of me. "She's a Fallen Angel and she tried to hit me first."

"Correction," Raynare said coolly. "I tried to kill you, and I'm about to try again."

Her fingers flexed and clenched and between them a massive javelin of dark red light seemed to coalesce.

I hadn't been able to see the first one she had thrown at me, but I could tell just by looking at it that it was dangerous. If that thing hit me I doubted I was going to live to see the night.

I licked my lips. "How about we call it even?" I offered. "I'll be out of your hair, and I'll even take care of Asia for you."

"I'm going to kill you, slowly," she told me calmly, she utterly believed it as well.

But then, Justin had that same belief.

Still, he hadn't been a Fallen Angel that was quite possibly older than time itself. I'd caught her off guard, but I couldn't be certain if it would happen again. Aside from the brief detour through the church doors she didn't look exactly worse for wear except for a scrap here and there. If I'd hit a regular human with that much force their insides would have been paste.

"You're just jealous of my amazing crown," I told her frankly. "You know, if you weren't such a bitch I'd happily go buy one for you."

It had apparently been the wrong thing to say.

The dark haired fallen angel vanished from where she had been standing.

I had a moment's notice as my instincts screamed at me and I lunged backwards as she appeared in front of me, that lance of light thrusting up towards my chin.

I narrowly avoided it and jumped backwards, and landed over ten meters away.

My eyebrows raised up to meet my hairline, but I quickly caught sight of Raynare again an instant before large dark wings burst forth out of her back, shredding the remains of her dress. She flew through the air towards me and again attempted to impale me upon that dark glowing spear.

I dodged by the barest inches again, and quickly began to realize that, despite her speed, I was able to keep up. Whatever had happened to my body when I had become a Devil had enhanced it to the point where I could see her move, and more importantly. I could keep up!

"Can't we talk about this?!" I shouted as I lunged out of the way of another attempt to impale me.

"We can talk about this when you die!" Raynare snarled and her dark feathery wings flapped, launching her up into the air. She drew back and hurled her spear of light at the ground near me and I was unable to jump away in time.

The spear hit the earth and exploded. It was agonizing beyond words as the light hit me and I felt my skin burn. For the briefest instance I felt sympathy for Justin for what I had done to him, before quickly remembering why it had happened.

I hit the ground and rolled for a few feet before I managed to hop up onto my feet. There was a massive crater where the spear had hit and dirt rained down around me. "You dumbass!" I shout up at her angrily. "If I'm dead I can't talk!"

"That's the point, now stand still!"

"Fuck you!" I shouted angrily at her and clenched my fist. I reached out metaphysically into the environment and pulled in a swath of heat from the environment, causing the ambient temperature to plummet rapidly.

My body began to burn as I pulled in the thermal energy and held it tightly, drawing in more until I could hold no more.

The air, which had been almost placid suddenly churned itself up viciously into a gale. The Fallen Angel, who had been so confident a moment ago suddenly found herself beset by gusts of wind that threw her viciously in the air. Her wings flapped rapidly to steady herself but to no avail.

I brought my hand up into a grasping position and took aim through it at my struggling target. Except I hadn't taken into account how hard it would be to aim when she was being buffeted by the gale-force winds that had erupted from the sudden difference in temperature in the environment.

For the briefest of instances she seemed to take control, before she threw herself into a dive towards me.

"Fuck you," I shouted at her again. "Fuck you and my Spanish teacher!"

"Fuego!" I snarled and pushed out the scaling heat in the form of a flash of fire and the roar of flames.

I lost sight of her as the flames tore forth from my hand and set the world above me on fire. I felt the skin of my palm crackle and burn from the sheer heat of it.

A deep thundering voice seemed to boom through the air.

"**Boost**."

In an instant I saw a bright flash of red light slice through the torrent of flames, and the next they had vanished and the air seemed to suddenly still.

Raynare seemed to float in mid-air, her clothes torn and singed, her eyes filled with anger and, dare I say it? Wariness. On her right hand was a crimson metal gauntlet that seemed to be inlaid with large orbs that seemed more like emeralds than anything else. Grasped in the same hand was a massive spear of light that made the previous ones look like toothpicks.

"That was not devil magic," she spoke to me, her eyes staring at me intensely, even as the massive column of light in her hand seemed to shrink and vanish. "To think that a mere low-class devil like you would cause me to have to rely on this thing." Her teeth lips peeled back into a vicious smile.

I was filled with a sudden sense of danger that eclipsed what I had felt before.

Nothing about her had changed except for the gauntlet. Sure, her clothes were charred and practically falling off her body giving me an eyeful, that in any other situation I'd have appreciated. But a simple piece of armour shouldn't have been enough to dispel the flames I had unleashed. My palm throbbed angrily and the skin of my hand seemed to hiss and smoke. I gritted my teeth and swallowed the lump that had developed in my throat.

I suddenly felt I was terribly, terribly outclassed.

"**Boost**."

Again, that voice echoed out through the world. I realized, with a start that it had come from the gauntlet.

My instincts began to scream at me to run. There was no way I could stand up to the creature in front of me. I felt my body begin to tremble, but I stood my ground.

"Mistress Raynare!" A voice suddenly called out from a fair distance away.

I looked towards it, only to realize that we'd somehow crossed a vast amount of distance and were barely near the church at all. It was then I noticed something else. There was something wrong with the world around us. It was shifting ever so slightly, twisting and morphing.

We were standing in the middle of a street on top of the hill and no one was around at all, in the middle of the day.

"Please! Let him go!" Asia cried out as she got closer.

A dark look crossed the Fallen Angel's face as she turned to the approaching nun. "Oh, why should I, Asia?"

"Please! I beg of you, be merciful to him!" Asia begged, her eyes watery, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks.

Something twisted in my chest at seeing such an innocent girl cry.

"If it's for you, I suppose I could be merciful this once," Raynare mused, turning her gaze to me. "How about it, boy? I'll let you crawl away with your tail between your legs."

Anger burned through me. "I'm going to kill you," I told her, my voice seething.

She regarded me for a moment, before she vanished. She vanished and the scraps of clothes she had worn fluttered in the air, apparently having torn off her body from the sheer speed she had moved at. I couldn't track her movement at all, and without warning, she appeared in front of me a mere foot away, stark naked.

"**Boost**."

I found myself at a loss of words, and just like when I faced He Who Walks Behind, I felt an unquantifiable terror flood me. I wanted to run away. I wanted to flee from her. But somehow, I managed to stand my ground and hold my head tall.

"Such a shame as well, you're totally my type," Raynare told me, a lazy smirk on her lips.

"If you weren't half a bucket of crazy bitch I'd say you were mine as well," I managed to get out.

Suddenly, without warning, her entire demeanour seemed to change. She gave me a warm, genuine smile and tilted her head in a way that could be considered cute. "Come play soon!

Something hit me in the stomach. It hit me hard and the world blurred as the air in my lungs evacuated. It lasted a mere second, before I felt something hard and wet hit my back. Or rather, _I_ hit something hard and suddenly found myself an inch under water. I suddenly found myself with a mouth full of chlorinated water and a panicked urge to fill my lungs with air.

Everything hurt.

Every inch of my body stung and felt like it had been hit by a car. My body refused to listen, and I found myself drowning before, with what remained of my strength, I pushed myself up into a sitting position, even as my stomach muscles protested and screamed at me to stop torturing them.

The world continued to spin drunkenly and I couldn't hold back as I suddenly threw up my lunch.

Jesus fucking Christ, _that_ was a Fallen Angel?

The massively sharp stab of pain through my head felt like a tickle compared to everything else I felt.

—~—


	5. Chapter 5

—~—

I had assumed that getting back to Kuoh Academy with five broken ribs and a fractured hip would have been the most difficult part of my day, after having my ass handed to be by the Fallen Angel on Asia's shoulder. I had been very, very wrong.

I found myself in the lobby of the old building that the Occult Research Club made its home. In front of me was one of the most daunting things I had ever laid my eyes on.

A staircase.

My entire body hurt. Two days ago I had no idea what pain was. The creature that Justin had sent to kill me had been a great introductory lesson. If I hadn't gone through it I doubt I would have been able to drag myself all the way to where I was. Somehow I hurt far, far more than what He Who Walks Behind had done to me, and yet, I was able to endure it better than I had the lesser assault.

I chalked it down to my devilishly good looking body.

Still. I was at the end of my limits. The staircase seemed far too much of an insurmountable challenge. I managed to shuffle my feet and bring myself to the edge, before I collapsed against the first few steps and the banister. The wood felt cool and the polished surface felt like heaven to rest my head on.

I couldn't help but close my eyes briefly and felt my lungs quiver with every breath painfully. "Just… a small break," I told the stairs. "Then I'll get to the top of you."

Somehow, although it was an inanimate object, I felt the stairs mocking me.

I felt myself slipping from consciousness, and rather than fight it, I embraced it and let the pain of my body ebb away.

"Harry?!"

A sudden shout of surprise shocked me to wakefulness with a snort. "Mm'wake," I mumbled into the stair beneath my face and suddenly the pain struck back with a vengeance. I had no idea how long I had been passed out for, but my body ached in new and exciting stair-induced ways.

"Kiba, go get Sona."

"Of course, Buchou."

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder what that word meant, and why it hadn't been translated.

A soft, strong hand gripped my shoulder and attempted to roll me onto my back. I couldn't help but let out a mewling sound of pain as my ribs shifted in my chest and made with the stabby-stabby.

My vision was blurry, but I could see a red blob above me a moment before I felt arms slip under me, and somehow lift me up. Another stabbing pain tore through my chest and I couldn't help but grunt and shut my eyes tight as they hefted my considerably lanky body up and then made their way up the stairs. Every step was painful and there were many of them.

I mumbled something incoherently as I felt whoever was carrying me reach the top step. It had meant to be something along the lines of 'I told you I'd make it,' but instead came out as 'Mhmtouymket'.

"Akeno, get the door," the person carrying me snapped off an order.

There was the sound of a shuffling of feet and a click and more walking, before I found myself being lowered onto something cold and hard. I found it hard to concentrate again, and barely found myself holding onto consciousness, even as I attempted to open my eyes.

"He seems to be severely injured."

"These burns are from light—" "—take off his—"

"How—" "—could it—" "—a Fallen—"

At some point I probably loss consciousness, but eventually I found myself gaining a semblance of coherency again.

"He's waking up," a soft voice murmured from my left.

My chest felt inexplicably warm, like someone had put a sunlamp over my chest. I could feel hands pressed against me, slowly moving over my chest.

Slowly but surely, I managed to open my eyes, and I found myself staring up at the ceiling. There were flickers of shadows, cast from orange flames, that danced across it. They seemed endlessly fascinating.

A gentle hand touched against my cheek, cupping it, and I found my attention being drawn to its owner.

Rias stared down at me, her expressive blue eyes filled with concern that I had rarely seen aimed my way. A relieved smile sat on her cupid-bow lips. "How are you feeling, Harry?" she asked me, her voice gentle and as soft as her lips looked.

I stared at her for a long moment, my eyes fixated on her lips, before I remembered how my own worked. "Like I was hit by a truck," I said honestly, giving her a tired smile.

I attempted to sit up and a second hand, from someone else pressed against my chest, and held me down.

I managed to turn my head, ever so slightly and almost wished that I hadn't.

Smiling down at me, serene as ever was Akeno. "Don't move," she told me. "You're still quite injured, if you do you may fracture your ribs again." Her smile remained, and I realized, for the first time that her hand was against my bare chest. She continued to smile, and dragged her fingertips down over my ribcage, the digits following the curve of each rib as they found them and I couldn't help but wince as the slightest pressure caused them to ache.

I could have sworn I had seen her lips quirking, ever so slightly beyond her seemingly ever present, placid smile at the show of pain. None the less, I listened to what she said and held my silence begrudgingly. I was feeling less like a bag of broken bones and more like a bag of semi-bruised ribs. Whatever they had done was practically—or most likely, literally magic.

Despite everything, I found it in myself to be impressed, and also confused. Under Justin I had learned that performing healing magic on another's body was inherently risky and dangerous, and more importantly took skill that took years to develop.

Considering the shape I had been in when I had collapsed against the stairs, I was amazed at the vast improvement I felt. These girls were really something else.

I could see, a faint red glow that started just below my vision, above my chest. I was tempted to look, but felt the effort was too much for sheer curiosity.

"What happened to you, Harry?" Rias asked softly as her hand on my cheek drew away and set itself over my chest again. "What could you possibly done since this morning that could have ended with you like this?"

I didn't answer straight away, I wasn't entirely sure how to.

"I may have gotten into a fight with the fallen angel in that photo," I said after a brief moment. "…but she started it."

"You _what_?" Rias' voice was suddenly a lot firmer than it had been a second ago.

I gave a wince that had nothing to do with the pain I was still in.

"I met a nun in the park, and she asked if I could show her the way to the church," I explained to Rias. As I spoke, I could literally see the concern that had coloured her expression melt away to something remote and blank.

Rias' eyes closed and she let out a soft breath. "Please tell me you didn't do something so foolish. What would have made you think that something like that would be a good idea, Harry?"

"She told me it would be fine," I mumbled abashedly, diverting my gaze.

"And did she happen to know that you were a devil?" Rias asked, her voice calm as she opened her eyes again and regarded me impassively.

"Well, no," I reluctantly admitted, hesitating a moment before glancing back to Rias. "But… we know where the fallen angel is hiding now," I offered, giving her a weak smile. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Rias opened her mouth to say something, and at the same time a gentle knock echoed through the room.

"Buchou, I've brought the student president," I couldn't help but frown. I had never heard that voice before—or rather, I think I had when I had been laying half-conscious on the stairs. The most distinct factor, aside from the smooth, cultured sound of it was that it definitely belonged to a guy. I couldn't quite see; the door was behind me.

"Rias, what was so important—" Sona spoke as she entered the room, only to suddenly fall silent. "What happened?" she demanded to know a second later, her voice uncharacteristically abrupt and forceful, and dare I say it? Worried.

Rias looked up to where Serafall's sister was and gave her an utterly fake and forced smile. "Harry was just telling us how he entered a church and got into a fight with a Fallen Angel," Rias spoke cheerfully.

I could practically feel Sona's eyes burning holes into the top of my head.

"I take it back," she said, her voice as cool and collected as ever. "It seems like my sister had alternate reasons for choosing you. You're just as reckless as she is."

I couldn't help but wince at that comparison.

"He should be healed enough that moving won't re-fracture his ribs," Akeno spoke from my side and gracefully rose to her feet. Her close proximity, and the utter shortness of the skirt of the Academy uniform, meant that I had to avert my eyes and look away to avoid getting a full frontal look up her skirt. I was already in the dog house for my actions regarding Asia and the church. There was no point in giving any of them another reason to be pissed at me.

With a small amount of effort I pulled myself up into a sitting position, only to find that the cold draft that had settled against my skin, wasn't simply for a lack of shirt, but pants as well. I had been stripped down to my underwear and socks. I felt my amulet resting against my chest, thankfully they hadn't stripped it from me as well.

I resisted the urge to outwardly react to my state of undress and stood up, glancing around for my clothes. "Where did you put my clothes?" I asked, turning to Rias.

"No," Sona suddenly said firmly and I heard the click-clack of her shoes against the hard wood floor as she walked closer. I turned towards her just in time to find her in my face—or rather, chest.

Sona stood there, mere inches away, hands on her hips, head tilted up with a very stern look on her features. It would have actually been pretty cute if she didn't seem so agitated.

"You don't get to wear clothes."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, stunned by the sheer incredulity of those words. "Excuse me?" I couldn't help but utter, my eyebrows raising up as I turned to face her.

"Only responsible people get to wear clothes."

I stared at her mutely in disbelief and I had to try very hard to keep a straight face. "Can I at least put on some pants?"

She lifted a hand up and pointed to the couches that sat in the middle of the room. "Go sit down, now." She ordered me, her eyes cold and steely.

For the briefest of moments I considered saying something back to her, but my common sense for once didn't fail me, and I realized that there was no point digging myself a deeper hole.

She barely knew what had happened aside from Rias' oversimplification of what had happened. Lashing out at her wouldn't do anything but make me feel vindicated in the short term, and would make me feel guilty in the long.

Before I turned away, I took note of two things.

The first being, Tsubaki was apparently there as well. She stood there, by the door, blue-half-frame glasses glinting in the light cast by the candles in the room. She had a look of intense disapproval on her features.

The second being, there was a fifth person. The one who had apparently brought Sona and her vice-president to the room.

He was another student at the Academy, apparently. He had delicate pretty-boy features accentuated by his short, blond hair and his bright blue eyes. He was, in a word, the mortal enemy of your average high school student. Good looking, well presented and no doubt a hit with the ladies. He had a polite smile on his features, the kind that someone like him had as his default look.

It took me less than a second to realize I didn't like him.

I tore my eyes away from the two other in the room and reluctantly made my way to the couch and sat down. The leather of it felt good against my legs and back. I folded my arms across my chest for a brief moment, before forcing myself to drop my hands to my thighs and stop being defensive. I had no reason to be, it wasn't like I had done anything horribly wrong. They were overreacting.

I was the one who had been hit so hard I had slammed into a water feature a mile away!

Sona walked over and stood there, across from me, looking down at me. A moment later Rias joined her, and I found myself sitting there, in my underwear in front of the two devils who stood side by side.

No matter how you looked at it, the two were like night and day. Their looks were and expressions were very contrasted. Rias' features was openly expressive, while Sona's entire emotional spectrum could barely be seen except for her eyes. Yet, somehow they both managed to express the same displeasure on their otherwise pretty features.

For the briefest moments I could have sworn they were going to pull good cop, bad cop on me.

"Do you have any concept of the consequences of your actions?" Sona asked, her voice sharp as a dagger. "How dangerous attacking a fallen angel is, not just for you as an individual, but for the safety of all devils?"

I could feel a sinking sensation in my stomach. I refused to apologize for helping Asia. I hadn't done anything wrong.

"She attacked me first," I defended myself, forcing my voice to remain level. "I was literally walking away when she tried to stab me through the back."

"Be that as it may, you should not have been anywhere near a church from the very start." Sona told me plainly, giving no weight to my words at all. It made me frown.

Beside her, Rias brought a hand up and ran her fingers through her long crimson mane. "No matter how it may seem, the peace we hold between the Angels and Fallen Angels is tenuous at best," she told me before her hand dropped down.

She regarded me with a long look. "It doesn't matter who threw the first punch, Harry. It won't matter at all if the truce is broken. The only thing that anyone will care about, if the name of the devil who was the one who broke a truce that has lasted over a thousand years."

She was silent for a moment, before she spoke again.

"What part of going near a church did you think would end well?" She sounded like she genuinely wanted to know what boneheaded thoughts I had in my head when I done it.

I wanted to respond again that Asia had told me it would be fine, but I knew it was pointless. I fell silent and didn't respond. Whatever my intention had been, I had messed up in some regards. I had known that approaching the church had been a bad idea. Not specifically because there had been a Fallen Angel there, but because it was supposed to be a holy site.

Rias must have sensed the sudden downturn in my mood. Without saying a word, she stepped around the coffee table and lowered herself next to me. The leather cushions squeaked creaked slightly and shifted as she settled down.

"I understand," she told me softly. "Your intentions were noble, you were trying to do something nice for the nun. But you have to remember now, and in the future that you _are_ a devil. Those of the church consider you, and us, and all devils as the enemy." Her soft hand came down and rested on my thigh.

"She was a nice girl," I said tiredly, the fight seeming to drain out of me. "She had nothing to do with it at all."

She was silent for a few moments. "Did you ever consider that it might have been a trick?" Rias asked me, "That it had been a trap from the very beginning?"

"Asia isn't like that," I couldn't help but snap and glare briefly at Rias. "She _saved_ me," I said bitterly.

"I'm not going to question that," Rias said carefully, her fingers gently squeezing my thigh. "But I want you to listen to what I'm about to say."

I said nothing.

"Didn't you find it strange at all, that you just happened to stumble across a nun who needed to find her way to a church?"

I continued to hold my silence, no matter how much I wanted to shout and yell that she had it wrong.

Across from me, Sona reached up and adjusted the pink-framed glasses that sat upon the bridge of her nose. "It's unfortunate that you are not a member of my peerage, Harry." She told me. "I would very much like to punish you for your indiscretion."

"Why not call Serafall if you feel that way then?" I couldn't help break my silence and snap at her, already knowing the answer. Sona had said as much earlier in the day, she didn't want her sister around.

"Because she's even more likely to become enraged that you were attacked and break the truce herself by declaring war on the Fallen Angels." Sona said flatly. "As it is, we can't tell her what you've done or the consequences could be far more severe."

The sudden spark of rebellion seemed to sputter and die and began to feel even worse than I had before. I let out a long sigh and I found my gaze dropping back down to the rug beneath me. Suddenly it seemed very fascinating.

Sona sighed and she turned to Rias. "While I do not condone his actions, they have turned up something interesting. It is surprising to find that a fallen angel has set up base in the city. As the caretaker I can't imagine you're very pleased, Rias."

"No, I'm quite annoyed." Rias admitted as she turned to face Sona, both of them seemingly over berating me for my indiscretion. Her hand on my leg, however, continued to gently squeeze reassuringly.

I looked back up at Rias as she started to speak with Sona directly, and winced as a sharp pain stabbed through my chest. I brought my hand up and gingerly rubbed the sore spot at the base of my ribcage. Considering the state I had been in when I got back, I was surprised that they had been able to patch me up as quickly as they had, or at all.

Raynare's words briefly passed through my mind again. She had said what I was using wasn't devil magic. That much was obvious, but did that mean that Devil's had their own unique magic? It was highly likely. The magical circles that they seemed to be able to use for teleportation should have been the first clue. Had the healing that Akeno and Rias done been more of that magic? It seemed reasonable to assume.

I let out a long breath and looked away from Rias. I couldn't help but glance towards the door, where Tsubaki stood, only to find Akeno next to her and the other student who had brought Sona and her vice-president.

I held back a wince at the stern look upon Tsubaki's face as she stared at me pointedly. She'd been half convinced I had been a troublemaker last night. With actual 'proof' of my delinquency, I had a feeling I'd lost my good graces in her books.

Tsubaki looked away from me and turned to Akeno beside her, and said something I couldn't quite hear.

The hand on my leg continued to rub and I couldn't help but swallow as I started to get self-conscious with where the crimson haired devils hand was. I glanced up to Rias' face briefly, only to find her oblivious to how far up my thigh she was rubbing.

I couldn't help but stealthily move my hands to my lap, crossing my fingers casually, as if I hadn't been trying to cover myself. No one batted an eyelash at the action and I felt a moment of relief.

"—If that's all, Rias, I believe I will return to my work. If it's alright with you, I'll have you keep Harry in your care for a bit longer until he's fully healed." Sona, who still stood across from Rias and me, looked a bit less agitated than she had previously.

She must have taken a chill pill. Unfortunately it probably had been a suppository, with how she'd been acting and how long it had taken to kick in.

The hand on my thigh finally slipped as Rias stood up. "Of course, it would be my pleasure to assist further," she reassured the Student President in front of her. "I'm certain there won't be any further hiccups."

Sona's lips twitched into the tiniest of smiles. "Yes, I have to admit, I had not foreseen him being able to find the only church in the entire city, or be willing to get close to it."

"He's still right here, you know," I said to Sona dryly, catching her attention again.

She regarded me for a long moment with her violet eyes. "I apologize for my reaction earlier," she said, her voice level. "It was inappropriate and undeserved. I was unprepared for what Rias had told me. In the future I believe I will be more… equipped to dealing with sudden surprises in regards to you."

It took me a moment to decode what she had been trying to say. Translation: I was a bitch and was surprised by your shenanigans. I didn't expect stupid shit from you, I'll know better in the future.

"I'm sorry as well," I said after a few moments. "For getting into a fight with that Fallen Angel," I specified. "I'm not sorry about helping Asia, helping people is never the wrong thing to do."

Sona gave me a long look before she closed her eyes and sighed softly. "I suppose that's the best I can hope for. In the future, at least try and get an equal exchange for your services, or you'll look bad as a devil and reflect poorly on my sister."

"Does that mean I can put my clothes on again?" I couldn't help but ask, my voice holding a note of teasing. "Because somebody's going to get the wrong idea if they walk in here and see me in my underwear surrounded by pretty girls."

Sona stared at me in confusion for a long second, before she averted her eyes and a light tinge of pink coloured her cheeks.

She left without another word said to me.

Beside me, Rias brought up a hand to her mouth and tried to stifle a giggle she couldn't help but let out.

"Come, Tsubaki," Sona said as she approached the doorway.

"One moment, if you would, President," Tsubaki said respectfully, before stepping forwards. She directed her attention to me. "Harry. If you'll recall I spoke to you last night in regards to getting a tutor for you for your Japanese. I've managed to find someone who is willing to tutor you."

I nodded and smiled at her. "I remember, I never did thank you for the offer, did I? Thank you Tsubaki." I thanked her, before pausing and asking. "What is their name?"

I watched as her lips quirked ever so slightly into a small smile. "You already know her, you'll be pleased to know."

I looked at her for a long moment in confusion. The only people I knew in the Academy were in the room. It took me a long time to understand why she had that tiny smile on her lips. When the realization dawned on me, a chill slithered its way down my spine.

I couldn't help but look at Akeno, who stood beside her. Her delicate features had an amused look upon them.

"Oh my, you have such an unpleasant look on your face, Harry," Akeno said, smiling at me placidly. Her lavender hued eyes seemed to radiate an amusement at my reaction. "I assure you I am a very competent teacher."

"Super," I murmured under my breath. "Thank you, Tsubaki," I said, my voice straining to hold back on the sarcasm.

Tsubaki gave a nod of approval and her smile briefly grew. "Have a good evening." She bowed lightly to Rias and nodded to Akeno, before turning and leaving, following Sona out of the room.

As the door shut, Rias spoke to me again. "Harry, I know it may have seemed unfair the way Sona acted." She considered her words. "That's part of who she is. Even when we were young she was always a bit straight laced. But more than that, I don't think you understand the amount of danger you put yourself in by going to the church."

"I get it," I said, suddenly feeling irritated again. "I got my ass kicked, end of story."

"No." Rias said, her voice firm and forceful, and if I was being honest, probably more than a bit angry. "You don't understand. The power of light that Angels and Fallen Angels wield is deadly to us. It is literally poison to our bodies."

"Do you know what an exorcist is, Harry?" Rias asked, her voice only slightly calmer than it was before.

"I've seen the movie," I offered hesitantly. "May the power of god compel you and all that?"

"Yes, that." Rias spoke. "Except, replace that priest with a warrior trained by the church since birth to smite devils in the name of god. Warriors with the blessings of god who are capable of wielding weapons of light as well."

Rias took a deep breath and the hand that had been on my leg found its way there again. "You were born a human, and you were killed, but you managed to escape death by being resurrected as a Devil. A Devil who is exorcised, or killed by an Angel, fallen or otherwise isn't simply killed. They are terminated. They become nothing. There is nothing left and you feel nothing." Her hand tightened on my thigh almost painfully.

"Please tell me you understand how dangerous it was for you to go to that church," she pleaded, sounding almost desperate. "Please tell me you understand why Sona—why I reacted the way we did."

As Rias had spoke, I had felt a sickening sensation settle in my stomach, and grow, and grow until I felt like I was going to be ill. My mind replayed what had happened to Stan for the umpteenth time.

He Who Walks Behind hadn't just killed him, he had unmade his very soul.

That light that Raynare had wielded against me, _that_ was capable of reducing devils to nothingness as well?

The sheer weight of what I had done, and how close I had come to simply ceasing to exist, hit me as hard as the Fallen Angel had.

"Why didn't either of you tell me it was that dangerous earlier?" I couldn't help but ask, my voice sounding as small as I felt.

"I never thought you'd find your way to a church before it became relevant," Rias said honestly, her smile weak. "Neither did Sona, The only church in the city is so far out of the way we thought it wasn't going to be a concern."

It had been very far out of the way. Asia hadn't even been able to find it without local directions.

"I didn't know," I mumbled, my gaze dropping down.

Rias said nothing and simply sat there beside me for a long time in silence.

"Before this whole… incident, I had intended to bring you along to something that I, as the caretaker of the city am obligated to deal with," Rias admitted. "But in your current state I'm not quite certain it is the best of ideas."

My ribs throbbed painfully in response to her words. "If you think I'm not up for it I won't question it," I said honestly.

As far as everything Devil was concerned, I was a complete novice. My life as a devil was barely a day old. As evident by my apparent ignorance in how deadly even stepping into sight of a church was; I had a lot to learn.

"Can I ask what it was that you wanted to bring me along for?"

Rias regarded me for a long moment. "A few hours ago I received word from an Arch Duke, that a stray devil had escaped into my family's territory, to be specific, the city."

"Stray devil?" I repeated. "What's the difference between a stray devil and a regular one?"

Rias didn't answer straight away. "I wanted to show you," she told me. "I wanted to give you proof that what I am about to tell you is the truth, but right now it would be selfish and dangerous to take you."

She took another deep, chest expanding breath.

"The term stray devil is fairly new. It's only really became a thing when the Evil Piece system, the way we resurrect other species as devils, came into being. A stray devil is—or was—a resurrected devil who had betrayed, or killed its master."

"It's very rare for it to occur, most devils are very careful about who they resurrect. But, sometimes, a resurrected devil will betray, or leave their master." Rias explained carefully. "You must understand, Harry. The power of a Devil is enormous. It can't be compared to regular humans, even ones, such as yourself who is well versed in the arts of magic."

I couldn't help but nod mutely. I'd felt it straight away. What I had been capable before I had died had been nothing compared to the power I had been able to pull forth on a whim when I had confronted Justin.

"That power, without restraint is beyond dangerous. There is nothing more terrifying than a devil without restraint." Rias murmured, more to herself than me at this point. "Many years ago, when the original Lucifer was still in control of hell, Devils had been given free reign to be as vicious and monstrous as they pleased."

Rias took a deep breath and shook her head, smiling at me faintly. "I'm getting side tracked. To be blunt. Stray Devils can no longer be considered to even be devils. They're monsters. Without a master to help them control their power they are consumed by it and become abominations."

I fell silent again as Rias continued to explain what a 'Stray Devil' was to me. I understood her earlier words, why she wanted to have proof to show me before she said anything.

As it was, I wanted to call bullshit on it.

I wanted to rage and accuse her of lying to me.

I wanted to yell that she had made the entire thing up because she knew that I wanted to leave. It was a perfect excuse to force me to stay. It was 'for my own good'.

If I left I'd become a monster.

I took a moment to calm myself down, and actually think about what Rias had said. It wasn't a simple thing such as 'think about leaving and you go crazy'.

"It's a proximity thing, isn't it?" I finally asked, looking up at Rias. "A new devil has to be around the one who made them a devil, physically to keep them in check."

"That's right," Rias said, her hands absently drawing up to her hair, and toying with a lock of it.

"…So how long is it?" I asked suddenly. "How long before I have to see Serafall again?"

"I'm not really sure," Rias admitted, her hand dropping down again. "As I said, it's very rare that it happens. I don't doubt that Lady Serafall will be back within a few days to check in on you though."

"Either way," Rias said, and gracefully rose to her feet, her hands coming down to smooth out her skirt. "There is a stray devil in the city that needs to be dealt with, we've already received a few missing persons reports over the last few days."

"Kiba, I'll have you accompany me to deal with it, if you'd be so kind. I believe Koneko is busy with a client of hers this evening."

"Of course, Buchou," The boy from the doorway agreed, his voice smooth and cultured.

"Rias?" Akeno questioned from the doorway, sounding a bit confused.

I couldn't help but glance over my shoulder at her, to find her giving the crimson-haired devil standing beside me an odd look.

Rias gave Akeno a beaming smile. "It's convenient, isn't it? Harry is unable to come, and you've volunteered to be his tutor. He's supposed to start tomorrow, perhaps you can cover some good ground this evening?"

Akeno blinked briefly, before her expression smoothed out into the usual smile. "Of course, It would be my pleasure." She turned her gaze to me and I found myself frowning slightly. "How about it, Harry? Would you like to get started this evening?"

I didn't answer, and instead turned to Rias. "I'll be fine," I told her firmly. "It sounds like these stray devils are dangerous, shouldn't you take her with you, just to be safe?"

"A simple stray devil of this supposed calibre is no threat to any member of my peerage," Rias reassured me, before she walked over towards the door and stopped in the middle of the circle carved into the floorboards.

She drew her hands up and set them palm down in the middle of the air, two inches above the other. Beneath her palms a crimson magical circle blossomed to life and expanded out, causing the glyphs and lines on the floor to come to life with energy.

The blond—Kiba, as Rias called him—approached and stood beside the crimson haired devil.

The magical circle beneath them began to spin and the next instant it flashed, and they vanished along with the circle, leaving me alone in the candlelit room with Akeno.

I took a deep breath and turned to Akeno, offering her a strained smile. "Can I ask where you and Rias put my clothes?"

Akeno smiled at me, a faint amusement on her features as she walked over to the couches. Her long, long ponytail swayed behind her as she walked and as she sat down, she reached up and gently ran her fingers through it, brushing it up from behind her so she didn't end up sitting on it.

"You very much could," Akeno told me with a smile, amusement twinkling in her eyes as she regarded me.

I gave a sigh and gave her an amused look, despite myself. "Where did you and Rias put my clothes?"

Akeno did not answer verbally, instead she lifted a finger and pointed to an innocuous bin that sat beside Rias' desk. I could see my jeans peeking out of the top.

"Really?" I couldn't help but demand to know. "Why would you do that?"

"They smelt strange," the raven haired girl told me with a smile. "Would you like to go and get a change of clothes from your bag? I'm happy to wait for you."

"I don't have another change of clothes," I told her heatedly. "My only other set of clothes is a jacket and my pants that I was wearing when I died."

Akeno's eyebrows rose. "Oh my, that would be a problem, wouldn't it?" she mused, her hand coming up to her cheek and lightly tapping it. "Hm, if you'd like I can always offer you something of my own to wear?"

"As tempting as it sounds to cross dress," I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. "I think I'm going to have to pass."

"That's unfortunate," Akeno murmured. Her hand dropped down to her lap and she tilted her head. "The mall is no doubt closed by this time. I suppose the only other thing I can offer is to conjure you something to wear for the meanwhile."

"You can conjure clothes?" I asked sceptically.

Conjuration took a lot of finesse. You literally had to dip your hand into the Nevernever, pull out some ectoplasm and shape it into the object you wanted. The most I'd ever managed under Justin's tutelage was a very unconvincing rock. It had been purple.

If Akeno, the girl in front of me was capable of something like creating _clothes_, then I couldn't help but be impressed.

It took me a moment to remember that Devils apparently used a different type of magic all together, or at least a different rule set.

"I'll take that as an emphatic yes," Akeno said to me with a smile. "Now what to have you wear." Suddenly, without warning, a glint appeared in Akeno's eye, and I suddenly felt a very minor sense of danger radiating from her. It took all I had to not jump back over the couch and put distance between us.

It only lasted for a moment, before Akeno shook her head and smiled at me, with a faint laugh.

I couldn't help but feel worried at what had crossed her mind enough to make her laugh. I felt nervous under her gaze as it was. The laugh could not have meant anything good—for me at the very least.

She stood up, and gestured at me to do the same. "Please stand up, I would hate to get the wrong size."

I obliged reluctantly and stood up in front of her, my hands remaining casually folded over my crotch.

Her eyes flickered down my body, roaming over every inch of it, only to pause on my crotch. She looked up at me with a raised eyebrow, before making a dismissive motion with her hand. "Drop your hands and turn."

I rolled my eyes and reluctantly dropped my hands, before carefully turning around in a full circle. When I finished the revolution, Akeno lifted her hand and held it between us. A magical circle, very similar to the one that had transported Rias and the other guy appeared and she pressed her fingertips against it. The inner sections of the magical circle seemed to lazily rotate upon themselves, before the circle burned brightly and a flash of light erupted forth from it.

It blinded me momentarily, but as it did, I felt my body suddenly become constricted as something soft and pliable seemed to wrap around every inch below my neck.

When the light had faded, I found myself suddenly a lot warmer than I had been, and a lot more restricted. I lifted my hands up, and found my arms covered in white sleeves.

A glance down told me that Akeno, true to her word had summoned a simple white shirt, and a pair of grey slacks. I was distinctly lacking shoes, but it was definitely a step up from sitting there in my underwear. I couldn't help but reach up and touch the material, rubbing it between my fingertips. It felt as real as anything I'd ever felt.

"That's actually really impressive," I had to admit as I looked back to Akeno.

She had a pleased look on her features. "Of course, something this simple is not something I could possibly fail at." She sounded proud of her magical ability.

"Could you teach me how to do that?" I asked her suddenly. "The way I use magic is a lot different than how you seem to be doing it."

"I could," Akeno answered with a pleasant smile, and said nothing else.

I stared at her for a long moment, to which she continued to smile.

"_Would_ you please teach me how to use magic like that?" I said, stressing the first word.

"Perhaps," Akeno said, as she regarded me. Her violet eyes seemed to be looking for something. "I will teach you, if you do something for me. I am happy to tutor you in the Japanese language, since Tsubaki has asked me to, however. Teaching you something like magic, I believe you'll definitely have to offer me some recompense."

"I have nothing to give you," I told her honestly. "I only had the clothes on my back this morning, and now I don't even have that."

Akeno shook her head lightly. "I have no interest in anything of material value. I have questions that I would like you to answer. If you can answer them satisfactorily, I would be happy to teach you how to utilize the the power, that we devils possess."

I couldn't help but wonder what her game was. I couldn't really think of anything that she'd ask that could possibly be dangerous to answer, at least, almost nothing. She could always ask for my _name_ and do all manner of horrible things to me.

"You seem conflicted," Akeno observed, her placid smile briefly taking on a tinge of amusement. "Shall I make it easier for you? You can choose not to answer the question that I will pose to you, and we may simply end it there."

"Alright," I agreed. "Hit me."

Apparently, she liked that answer, because her smile quirked into something a little more amused and dangerous for a second or two before she appeared to shake it off. She regarded me in silence for a long moment that quickly became uncomfortable, and I found myself shifting in my seat.

"Are you aware," she began, her voice quiet and serious. "Of the shadow that stretches out behind you?"

I gave her a blank look. I couldn't quite comprehend what she was asking. My shadow? Everyone had a shadow. Mine was slightly longer than most because of how tall I was, but that couldn't have possibly be what she had meant.

I repeated the question over in my mind, again and again, trying to find meaning inside the words. I found none that made sense to me. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I answered with complete honesty. I had no reason to lie.

"I see," Akeno murmured. "I've been told a little about how it happened, but if you would kindly tell me yourself, how did you die?" Her eyes never once left my face, as if she was searching for any signs of deception.

That question again. I was beyond sick of remembering yesterday. I just wanted to leave the events in the past and move on. Justin was dead. Elaine had vanished, and I had killed He Who Walks Behind—my mind froze.

My shock must have shown on my face, because Akeno leaned forwards intently. "Tell me," she insisted, her violet eyes staring into my face intensely. I purposely avoided matching her gaze.

I took a deep breath, and for hopefully, the final time, I told her about what had happened. I told her about coming home to find Justin and Elaine apparently attempting to restrain me. I told her about the petrol station, the monster that Justin had sent after me, about Stan, about killing He Who Walks Behind, about dying, and Serafall resurrecting me. I neglected the parts involving Lea, she had no need to know about that.

"And then," Akeno breathed out, her eyes wide and intensely focused on my face. Her eyes were filled with something mercurial. I couldn't classify it easily. It wasn't something simply as 'disgust' or 'fascination' or even 'concern'. "What happened then?" She asked me.

"And then I went home and I killed him," I told her concisely.

Akeno let out a soft sound of annoyance at my sudden end to the story. I got the feeling that she had been looking for something beyond the simple narrative. She sat back up, and I couldn't help but notice what the motion did to her shirt, it caused it to go taut under the strain of holding in her cleavage.

Say what you would about her personality, she was still hot.

"I think, I understand a bit better," Akeno said after a moment, her hand coming up to her neck and gently adjusting the ribbon that was wrapped around it. She let out a soft sigh. "But I can't imagine 'He Who Walks Behind' was its name, was it? It sounds more like a title."

"It wasn't his real name, no," I admitted. "The real thing is too much of a mouthful to pronounce." Not to mention I doubted I'd ever be able to verbalize what its 'name' had expressed. That was something I was happy to forget.

"There are some beings who are able to leave a mark on people after they've been encountered, or attacked in your case," the violet eyed devil mused aloud. "It's quite possible this is what happened to you."

"Is this why you reacted the way you did to me, when you first saw me?" I couldn't help but ask. "You saw the shadow thing and you thought…what exactly?"

"I had assumed you were the creature in disguise," Akeno admitted, her voice honest and unapologetic. "It was rather disturbing to see, and still is, in fact. It's causing me a great deal of unpleasantness to be in the same room as you right now."

'The feeling is mutual.' Is what I wanted to say, but never let it be said that I couldn't be diplomatic when the situation called for it.

"I still don't like you," I told her frankly, folding my arms across my chest.

"I would be delighted if I never saw you again," Akeno responded in kind, her eyebrow raising. "However, Rias has taken a liking to you, and seems to want to take you under her wing. I care about her too much to bring it up as an issue."

"Likewise." I said shortly and glared at her briefly. "…You're still going to teach me that devil-power stuff, right?"

"I am," Akeno agreed easily. "I believe the simplest way to get you out of here is to make you competent enough that you no longer _need_ to be here."

I wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that.

"I think we can come to an understanding," I told her honestly. "I don't have to like you to be able to learn. You teach me what I need to know and the moment I can be, I'm out of your hair."

"That sounds reasonable," Akeno acknowledged, her lips thinned out into a tight smile. "I would be happy to bring you up to a suitable level. Of course, if you disobey my instructions during tutelage," she trailed off and an almost sinister look passed over her features. "I will definitely punish you."

Over my dead body.

"If you lay a hand on me I am going to set it on fire." I told her frankly.

I had intended it as a threat of grievous bodily harm.

The way she smiled, the way her eyes lit up in excitement. I sincerely doubted she took it as such. Or maybe she did? Maybe she was just a bit crazy that way.

I unfolded my arms and offered her my hand.

The look of delighted excitement drained out of her features, and she looked at my hand for a moment, before giving a sigh of displeasure, and reaching forwards. Her warm, small hand grasped mine and I couldn't help but be vindictive and squeeze a bit too firmly.

Her lips formed into her usual, serene smile.

And she summarily crushed my fingers inside her grip.

I let out a yelp of pain and attempted to pull free, only to find her grip was far too strong.

"Oh my," she said lightly, letting go of my throbbing hand and bringing it up to her lips, as if she was actually shocked.. "I'm _terribly_ sorry, Harry. Shall I fix that for you?"

I gritted my teeth and glared at her angrily. "What _you_ can do is teach me how to fix it myself."

A dark look of delight passed over her features. "Oh, it would be… my pleasure."

It took me a few moments to realize that I had practically signed myself up for a lesson in pain. She didn't look like the type who'd let someone else practice on her, and to practice healing injuries, there had to be some in the first place.

I felt I'd dug myself into a hole, and the walls were lined with stupid, bitchy witch-devils with great tits.

I sighed and gave her a look of pure dislike. "Alright, how do we get started?"

Akeno's hand dropped from her lips again and she held it out to me. "First of all, we need to heal that hand of yours," she informed me. "It will be easier for you to concentrate on gathering your demonic-power if you aren't distracted."

I reluctantly reached forwards and placed my hand upon hers. As I did, she brought hers above it and pressed it down against the top of my hand, clasping it between hers tightly. I felt something warm radiate down onto my skin, something that seemed to ease the pain. It lasted for a few moments, before finally, the dark haired girl drew her hand away.

"How does that feel?" she asked, offering me a pleasant smile.

"Better," I said, and lifted my hand up, rubbing it lightly with my other hand. It was slightly tender, but it didn't feel like it had been put into an iron vice.

"To begin, you need to gather your demonic power by condensing the aura that covers your whole body. To do so, you must concentrate and feel the natural rhythm of the energy that is being produced."

I couldn't help but stare at her blankly. That had been incredibly unhelpful. I held back my complaints and instead focused on what she had said. It could be broken down into a few simple things.

My body was producing demonic energy.

My body was covered in that same energy.

Unlike my magic as a 'wizard' which relied on me drawing energy in, demonic power merely required control over what was already available. She had also said that I needed to feel the rhythm.

Long ago, when I had first began my training under Justin, he had taught both Elaine and I the simple act of meditation. It had taken me weeks to get it right, and then an extra few weeks to be able to feel anything other than stupid when I sat there for hours at a time.

I set my hands upon my knees and took a deep breath. I exhaled, and as I did I began to listen with my body. My attention turned inward, and I began to spread it out along my limbs.

The steady thud of my heart became noticeable as I did so. I could feel my body quiver and pulse with every beat. I wasn't sure how long it ended up taking, but eventually I started to notice something irregular. My heartbeat seemed to constantly stutter, like it was off by half a second.

The thud-thud was more like a thudud-thudud.

My attention lingered on that sound for a long moment, before I realized that the heartbeat was covering another sound. A second sound, slightly out of sync with the first. A second heartbeat that seemed to sit in the centre of my chest.

It's hard to explain what touching it was like—or even how I did it. It was like I reached in with my hands and grasped it. The moment I did, it seemed to burst into life. The second heartbeat became a drum and each percussion sent out waves and waves of energy rippling through my body and outward.

As I began to become accustomed to the feel of my own energy, I began to notice another. Across from me, as my own demonic power radiated out, I felt it crashing against something. It was Akeno's own demonic-power, I realized. Unlike mine, which had the beat of a drum, Akeno's felt more like waves crashing on a shoreline. In and out, in and out. Slow, gentle motions that seemed like they could turn into a monsoon at the slightest provocation.

I opened my eyes, and found Akeno sitting across from me, leaning forwards ever so slightly.

"Alright," I said to her. "I think I've got it."

"Show me." She said simply, before bringing her hands up and facing the palms together. As she did, a ball of golden yellow energy blossomed to life between them. It was about the size of a softball.

As she did it, I could almost see what was happening—or rather, I could feel it. She was drawing her aura into a point between her hands and feeding it to itself, to make it visible, or at least, that's how my aura interpreted it.

I lifted my hands up and began to attempt to mimic her. It took me a few seconds to figure out how to make my aura move. Mentally nudging the energy didn't work, neither did 'willing' it to move. In the end it was as simple as visualizing it in my mind.

Liquid light—the colour of the whitest silver—began to pool between my palms. For a moment the light seemed to want to escape, and it was more of a cloudy nebula than a ball, but with a quick nudge of thought, the light tightened and curled in on itself, forming a sphere the size of a soccer ball.

"Well done," Akeno praised me, her voice light and almost playful. "It's good to see that you have some talent, aside from causing trouble for other people."

"I'm grateful enough for you showing me this stuff that I'm going to ignore that," I told her with a cheerful smile, before adding on. "Mine's bigger."

Akeno regarded me for a moment, before she spaced her hands out, and the golden ball of energy expanded out until it was the size of a basketball. "You were saying?" she asked playfully, before the massive globe shrunk and vanished.

"Overcompensating much?" I muttered beneath my breath, without really feeling it. Without waiting for her to tell me what to do next, I began to to test the limits of what I could do with the bundle of energy between my hands.

In seconds, it began to quiver and shift in size, shrinking to the size of a grain of rice, before expanding out again and stuttering between all different sizes. As it did, I took note of how the rest of my aura changed, and to my surprise, I found that no matter the size of the ball between my hands, the energy it consumed varied very little.

The size of the thing was apparently just for show. With basic manipulation of it you could make it as big, or as small as you wanted to.

"I'm sure you've realized that demonic power relies on the user's imagination and your will to have it obey," Akeno said after a moment. "It's possible to do a variety of things with the power, some of the simplest ways to use it is to turn it into fire, water or even lightning. Though, for beginners, it is always easier to practice with existing fire or water."

I nodded, paying the bare minimum of attention to Akeno as I continued to tinker and toy with the energy I had become to grasp. The more and more I played with it, and felt it within me, the quicker I came to an unavoidable conclusion.

It made no sense, and defied everything I had ever been taught about magic.

I let the power fade away and looked up to Akeno, intending to ask her a bit more about how she used her demonic powers.

It wasn't meant to be.

The instance my lips parted a sudden crimson light filled the room and we were no longer alone.

Akeno's expression was placid for a brief moment, before she turned towards the light. Her eyes widened suddenly and she stood up immediately. "What happened?" she asked, her voice filled with concern.

I turned and as I did, I found my eyes mimicking Akeno's.

In the middle of the floor, where the magical circle had been engraved, a small figure stood.

Koneko—the small white haired girl that I had seen the previous night—stood there. She looked weary and pained, and the front of her uniform had been sliced down the middle. I could see an angry pink line that went from the top of her collarbone down to her hip. If it hadn't been for the battered shape she was in and my utter lack of interest in seeing her naked, my look would have made me feel dirty. Her blouse was in tatters and it looked like the button up corset that she wore was the only thing holding the outfit together.

Behind her, the light flashed again and an instant later Rias and Kiba, the blond boy from earlier, appeared behind her. Each of them looked a bit worse for wear, though the young white haired girl looked the worst.

"What happened?" I couldn't help but echo Akeno's question as, despite myself, I felt immediate concern for the three in front of me.

A dark looked passed over Rias' features as she walked forwards and gently set a hand on the white haired girl's back, gently guiding her to the couch where Akeno had been sitting. "Sit down, Koneko," the crimson haired devil instructed the younger girl. She took a deep breath, before looking up to Akeno. "Please heal Koneko for me, Akeno," Rias requested. "I'm a bit too agitated to do it myself."

She swooped around the couches and moved over to the desk that laid in the corner side of the room. She slipped around it and dropped herself into the large high-back chair that was beyond it.

She brought her hand up to her mouth and bit down on one of her fingers. She looked angry. I didn't want to chance pissing her off, and instead turned my attention to the girls across from me.

The young girl had long since shed the tattered remains of her clothes and sat there in her underwear. Her skin was a pale peach and looked so soft that I wanted to reach across and touch. Her budding breasts were tipped with a pale pink that seemed to eerily match the line that had been carved diagonally across her body. The panties she wore were white and had a pink bow at the top of them.

It took me a long moment to register that I was staring, and another to realize that the girl I was staring at was young enough and small enough that it was beyond inappropriate.

I forced myself to look away, even as Akeno laid her hands upon the girl's body and began to heal her.

"What happened?" I asked, turning my attention towards the other guy in the room. "Was it the stray devil?"

Kiba had at some point walked closer and stood beside the couch I sat on. He looked a lot less immaculately presented than he had when they had left. His blond hair was all over the place and his uniform looked as though it was covered with dirt.

"Buchou and I took care of the stray devil with only minor difficulty," Kiba told me, his grey eyes regarding me with a faint measure of amusement. "Unfortunately, it seems that Koneko had some issues with a client of hers."

"They attacked her?" I asked sceptically, to which I received a shake of the head.

"No, rather, from what I understood, they had been killed after they had summoned her." He paused for a moment, seeing my confusion and added on. "Killed by a Stray Exorcist, that is."

I stared at Kiba for a long moment, unable to process what he had said, before looking to the young girl that was being healed by Akeno. Who, herself was giving the blond a meaningful look.

The way they had made it sound, fighting against an exorcist was a death sentence.

"Koneko is a Rook," Kiba suddenly started to explain to me. "Their trait is that of overwhelming defence and strength. You were thinking about how she survived being attacked right?" He smiled down at me. "It's the opposite of Knights, such as yourself and I, who are granted increased speed and mobility."

My brow furrowed. "So if she wasn't a 'Rook' then…"

"Then she would be dead, rather than being healed by Akeno," he explained to me. "Thankfully Buchou and I were finished with the Stray Devil and were able to respond to Koneko's situation rapidly."

"That's enough Kiba," Rias said softly from across the room where she sat.

I briefly looked to Akeno and Koneko as I turned towards Rias, taking note of the slowly receding mark that had marred her otherwise perfect skin.

"To think that there was a stray exorcist in addition to that stray devil, and those fallen angels in my city." Rias said, her blue eyes narrowed as she stared at one of the walls, as if trying to burn a hole through it with her eyes.

"Still, it's a relief that the stray exorcist's accomplice mismanaged the barrier that prevented you from sensing Koneko's distress." Kiba said after a moment.

Rias gave a short nod and responded after a moment. "Yes, though it was definitely strange for an innocent girl like that to be with such a despicable character. To think he even threatened to rape her for failing to uphold the barrier that they had erected over the house." She said, her voice tinged with disgust.

I inhaled sharply as I realized she was talking about Asia and something cold and unpleasant settled in my chest, before it vanished as a sudden rush of anger drove through it.

"Harry." Rias' voice snapped me out of my sudden daze.

"What?" I asked suddenly, blinking and offering her a sheepish smile. "What were you saying, Rias?"

Blue eyes regarded me for a long moment. "Don't do anything rash," she told me, her voice calm and level. "As Sona and I told you before, the situation is a lot more complex than you, or even I can understand."

"Your own friend was attacked, and one of your clients was killed," I pointed out incredulously. "What do they have to do before you'll want to kick their ass? Literally stomp in here and smash all the furniture?"

"That's enough," Rias snapped and slammed her hand against the desk in front of her. She glared at me for a long moment, her eyes cold and hard, but lacking any sort of anger directed at me.

Despite my lack of tact, even I was occasionally able to pick up on things, and right then, my instincts told me that I needed to back off before I started something unpleasant.

I offered Rias a half-hearted smile and lifted my hands up in faux surrender. "I'm sorry," I told her.

The crimson haired devil stared at me for a long moment, before she sighed. "Yes, I'm also sorry. It isn't appropriate for me to get emotionally involved, however, as you said. I cannot tolerate them attacking my cute subordinates. However, I can also not afford to attack them recklessly."

At that point, it seemed like Rias was talking more to herself then I.

I took the moment to look over to Akeno and the white haired devil in her care. The only remaining sign she had been injured at all, was a faint colouring along the line that had been cut into her chest.

As I looked, she brought her arms up and folded them across her chest. I looked up in time to see her giving me a sullen, if annoyed look.

"…Sorry, Koneko," I told her after a moment, offering her a guilty smile. I hesitated for a brief moment before I reached up and tugged on my shirt. "Do you want to use this?" I offered her the shirt Akeno had conjured for me.

She looked like she was considering it for a moment, before she shook her head.

I briefly considered attempting to conjure a blanket for her, but I was nervous that I'd utterly fail at it and look like an idiot.

In the end I averted my gaze politely to the side, and inevitably my mind wandered back to a certain holy maiden.

Despite what Rias said, this wasn't something that I could simply leave be. Even she, herself acknowledged what a pure girl Asia was, and how unthinkable it was that someone like her was stuck with whoever that 'stray exorcist' was. They were obviously in league with the fallen angels.

I had no doubt that I wouldn't be able to sleep comfortably, knowing that that girl was stuck with them. I didn't doubt for a second that there was something unfortunate that had put sweet, innocent Asia in the situation she was in now.

I knew it was impossible, and that even if I did show up with fire and force and burn the church down around the fallen angels' heads, I couldn't beat them.

But maybe, just maybe, I didn't have to.

All I needed to do was get Asia away from them. If I could get her out of their grasp—if I could save her from them—maybe then I'd be able to look at myself in a mirror.

She'd saved my life today. That Fallen Angel could have killed me in an instant the moment she brought out that strange gauntlet. Whatever it had done, every time that the voice inside it had thundered in the air, she'd gotten stronger. Not a little bit stronger, a lot stronger.

But before that, I had been keeping up with her. In fact, I was pretty certain that if she hadn't brought it out then she wouldn't have stood a chance against me as she was.

I realized, with a sudden moment of clarity.

I _could_ beat Raynare.

I could win.

All I had to do was come at her with overwhelming force and take her out before she could tell what was happening.

I stared down at my hands for a long moment, before I stood up and turned back to Rias.

"Look," I began. "Today's been a long day. I think it might be best if I had an early night," I told her, before glancing at a clock on the wall. "If you can call eleven early," I added, giving her a smile before stepping around from the couch. "I don't suppose you managed to find me a place to stay today?"

Rias stared at me for a long moment, and I had to take extra care to avoid looking her in the eye and maintain my relaxed smile.

"Unfortunately, due to your misadventure today, I wasn't quite able to arrange suitable accommodation for you. I'm of course more than happy for you to stay here again for the evening," she said to me.

"That's fine," I told her continuing to smile. "It's probably better that way, I wouldn't know where to go even if you gave me directions," I said lightly. "Which room did you want me to use?"

"You can sleep in my bed again tonight," Rias told me, and smiled. "The other bedrooms are either vacant or not properly prepared."

'Oh my' Akeno said from near the couches, but I ignored her.

I managed to keep my smile up, though it became slightly strained. "I wouldn't want to intrude," I said to Rias. "I'm happy to even sleep on one of the couches in the lobby," I assured her. "I don't want to be a bother."

Rias' lips widened into a smile that looked every bit as fake as I had assumed mine did at that point. "Oh, no, not at all. I'm happy for you to sleep in my bed with me again, Harry."

"I _really_ don't want to be a bother."

"Oh, but I _insist_." A dangerous pressure seemed to build up around her, and I could feel the haired on the back of my neck rising as the tension built in a way that was worryingly similar to what I had felt when I had approached the church.

"W-Well, if you're certain." I couldn't help but swallow a build-up of saliva in my mouth.

Rias' less than genuine smile dimmed and she nodded to me. "I'll come to bed soon," she told me. "Don't stay up." She paused for a brief moment and then said. "Oh, also? Underwear is fine, but please don't trouble me by wearing clothes in my bed."

I stared at her for a long moment, before I turned and walked out of the club room without another word to her. As I did, I briefly glanced at the others in the room, offering them a quick good night and a smile.

The door to the clubroom shut behind me with a thud and a click and I couldn't help but scowl and glare out into the candlelit hallway in front of me. "…Fuck."

It wouldn't be as easy to get out as I had hoped it would. But that didn't mean I was going to give up on saving Asia. I knew that every second I wasted was another that something horrible could happen to her.

Rias' words replayed in my mind.

'_To think he even threatened to rape her. '_

My scowl darkened.

There was no way in Heaven or Hell that I was going to let someone that pure be defiled.

Not on my watch.

—~—


	6. Chapter 6

—~—

The moment I arrived at Rias' room I shut the door behind me and went over to my bag that sat in the corner of the room.

"Bob," I called out as I unzipped it and reached in, feeling around for the skull. "We need to talk."

"Finally!" The skull gasped out as I pulled it free from my tea-soaked pants that it had apparently been covered with. "I've been stuck in there for far too long!" it complained. "First the smelly socks then tea soaked pants? You're a cruel boy, Harry." He gave a sniff of disdain. "I'm starting to think you don't appreciate how valuable a resource I am. You know, back in my day I was revered and treated with dignity!" The skull began to complain.

I rolled my eyes and set the skull down on the desk before I dropped down into the chair in front of it. "You're an amazing encyclopedia," I reassured Bob. "I value you on the same level I do my math books. Now, I need you to tell me everything you know about Fallen Angels," I told it plainly, folding my arms across my chest.

"You'll have to be a bit more specific," Bob said dryly. "Everything I know about them would take a lifetime to tell you." It paused for a moment. "For starters, they can mostly be broken down into two groups, do you want to know about the Grigori, or the Fallen?"

It may have well been speaking ancient greek. "What's the difference?" I asked in confusion. "A fallen angel is just a fallen angel, isn't it?"

"Well, you're not wrong," Bob admitted, his voice tinged with amusement. "But in in this case it's like comparing lemons to limes. They're both fruit, they're both sour, but one fell from the tree because it liked to have sex, the other because the Prince of Darkness decided it needed a few party favors for when it torched the planet."

I stared at the skull, stupefied. "How do you, uh, tell them apart?" I asked after a brief moment of processing what he had said.

"It's actually really simple," Bob admitted. "The Grigori can physically appear in the mortal realms, while the Fallen are limited to acting through proxies, such as mortal vessels that they possess."

"…So they're the Grigori then," I murmured under my breath. "What can you tell me about the Grigori?" I asked my next question.

"Why would you…" Bob began, before trailing off. It's eyes suddenly burst into an intense light. "Have you come across one?" the skull whispered out excitedly. "A Grigori? Was it a female? Ohh!" It exclaimed with glee.

"…Why are you so excited?" I asked dubiously and leaned back on the chair. I kept one ear on the door, just in case Rias burst in at a bad time.

"Weren't you listening?" Bob said to me, annoyed. "The Grigori fell from heaven because they like_ sex_. Tell me, was she hot?" The skull pressed on.

"…Well, yeah," I admitted after a moment, not being able to help but smile slightly. Despite her kicking my ass, I was man enough to admit that Raynare had an amazing figure. "She was pretty hot, but she was a grade A bitch as well."

The flames in the skulls eye sockets did a little dance. I got the feeling that Bob had rolled his eyes at me. "Well duh, she's a fallen angel after all. What did you expect, flowers and smiles?"

I held back on the retort, mainly because I hadn't been able to come up with an appropriate quip. "And the Fallen? What can you tell me about them?"

Bob was silent for a long moment. "Not much," he admitted.

My brow furrowed. "Why not?"

"Because I know very little about them," Bob told me. "They aren't allowed in this dimension, no one quite knows why. I've heard a few theories, like 'because God said so' and something about their physical forms being too much of a strain on the world."

He fell silent again.

"Most wizards are smart enough to stay well away from them. But, I do know that there are thirty of them, and each of them are bound to a silver coin. There's an entire organization of them, they go by the name 'The Knights of the Blackened Denarius'."

"That's... amazingly unhelpful." I said with a frown. The thirty pieces of silver sounded oddly familiar, I was certain I had heard of that before. "I thought you said they weren't allowed in this world? How is there an entire organization of them then?"

"Weren't you listening? I told you, they can possess mortals and act through them." Bob said firmly. "Now, that's enough about _them_, let's talk about your Grigori girl instead. Describe her to me!"

I reached up and rubbed my jaw. "She was stacked," I admitted. "She looked around my age, but…" I brought my hands up to my chest and mimicked the dimensions of her body.

The skull gave a faint whistle. "Almost as big as that spicy devil girl you spent the night with eh? Say, if you end up sleeping with her you'll let me watch right?" he sounded overly eager.

The prospect of the horny skull watching me have sex with anyone was a bit too much. But hey, why not humor him?

"Sure," I agreed. "I'm more then happy for you to watch Rias and I sleep together," I told him with a grin.

"…You mean as in sex right, not actually sleeping?" The skull asked, its voice suspicious.

"I guess we'll find out, won't we?" I said with a grin and chuckled. I stretched my arms out behind me and rested them on the back of my head. "Say, quick question. How do you kill a fallen angel? Will excessive amounts of fire do it?"

"Not unless you're packing heavenly napalm," Bob told me cheerfully. "It takes a lot of power to take down a divine being, at least for mere mortals like your average wizard. Beings on the same metaphysical plain have a slight advantage and can get the job done a bit easier."

"Like a devil?" I offered, giving the skull a look with a raised eyebrow.

"Like a devil," he agreed. "Or another angel, or a Dragon with a capital D." It paused to consider. "Or really anything else in the various pantheons with the same or greater significance." He frowned for a moment. "Or even a human with a specifically designed tool for it. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of things that can kill your average fallen angel. It's when you go up to the higher ranks that you run into the whole phenomenal cosmic power issue."

Considering that I managed to put my foot firmly up Raynare's ass when we had thrown down, I was pretty confident that she wasn't on the upper ends of the power spectrum. I'd been able to bloody her nose, so to speak, with only my mortal magic.

I brought my hands down in front of my face and stared at them for a moment, before flexing my fingers and focusing on pulling my demonic aura into them. It took a second, but above each palm a silver whisp of power took shape, and quickly coalesced into twin spheres.

"Ooh, that's new!" Bob exclaimed. The pinpricks of light in its eye sockets focused on the balls of energy in my hands.

I stared down at them and wondered what it was that I had to do to make use of them. From what Akeno had said it was easy to turn them into fire, or other elements.

Instead of the requirement of pure, unflinching resolve and belief in my ability to cast magic, demonic power relies solely on imagination and will. By that logic, all I needed to do was imagine the balls of energy in my hands turning into fire.

I did, and they did.

I stared down at the twin balls of flame that hovered above my palms. The flowing embers twisted and leaped upon themselves in a strange dance. The orange flames were flickered with silver sparks of the demonic power that I had used to create them. I wasn't certain if that was supposed to happen, or if I just hadn't imagined it well enough.

As I stared at the flames in my hands, I imagined, and watched as the balls of fire danced merrily and rose up, twisting upon themselves and forming into streamers of flickering embers and sparks as they crashed in upon themselves and merged into a single tightly packed ball.

The nascent fire seemed to respond eagerly to my thoughts, like an overexcited puppy, unlike normal fire that I conjured. Fire wrought from my magic acted without intent other than to spread and burn—exactly like real fire.

"You should be wary of that power."

I looked up, snapping out of my daze. "What?" I asked suddenly, blinking rapidly. The fire above my hands snuffed out and vanished without a trace.

"You should be careful," Bob repeated. "Power like that never comes without a price."

"No shit," I said with an annoyed look. "I died and got resurrected as a devil. I'd say that was a fair price, wouldn't you?"

"You did die," the skull agreed. "And you got resurrected as a devil, yes, but you still have your free will, you still have your soul."

My immediate thought was to ask what he meant. I held back on the question, and instead fell silent. What did it mean to have free will and to have a soul? The girls out there were all devils, the boy was as well. Did that mean that they didn't have souls?

"If I use it I'll lose my soul?" I asked Bob, looking intently at it.

"You won't straight away," Bob said to me meaningfully. "But with time, one day you may find yourself walking over the invisible line that divides mortals from the rest of the things that exist in this world. By the time you realize, it would already be too late."

"That's some heavy stuff right there," I murmured and swallowed. "But what you're saying is that in the short term it should be fine right?"

"Well, yes," Bob said reluctantly, "But you're missing the point."

"All I needed to hear was yes," I told him with a grin. "If it's just this once it shouldn't be a problem, right? I can go in, save the girl, beat the bad guys and ride off into the sunrise."

"You're making a terrible mistake," Bob told me, its voice low and concerned. "If its magical power you're after, I can assure you that given time, I would be able to improve your skills a thousand fold."

"I don't have time!" I snapped irritably. "Even now…" I trailed off and clenched my fists. I breathed deeply and exhaled. "It's my choice. I'm doing what I need to to save Asia."

"It is your choice," Bob agreed quietly. "That's what having a soul is all about—being able to choose. But you're going to find it hard to keep that freedom, if you don't tread carefully, Harry."

I couldn't help but scowl and glare at the skull angrily.

What gave it the right to tell me how to live my life, or what I should or shouldn't do? If I wanted to use the powers of hell then it was within my damned right to do so. He made it sound like it was a slippery slope that turned into the sheer drop without warning.

But he didn't know me.

He had no idea what I've been through—what I'd done. I'd told him, yes, but he hadn't been _there_.

I breathed in deeply and stood up from the chair. "I'm going to lay down," I told the skull bluntly. "When Rias gets here and falls asleep I'm going to save Asia, and if I have to use that power to do it then I will. She is _worth it_." I all but snarled the end bit.

Bob blinked, or at least, that's what I assumed he did. "Asia's a girl?" Bob asked incredulously. "I thought you meant the continent!" It exclaimed. "Godspeed son! You go save her!"

I stared in disbelief at the skull.

"What?" Bob said at my look. "Don't you know? Heroes always get the girl if she's cute. If you rescue a girl you're definitely going to get laid, and you'll let me watch right? Right Harry? Harry?"

"Shut up, Bob."

I reached over, picked it up, and stuffed the skull back into my backpack without another word. I stashed it at the bottom and zipped the bag up tight, before dropping it beside my side of the bed. I briefly looked down at the clothes I wore, and wondered how long they'd last.

I decided to err on the side of caution and take them off—not because Rias had asked me to do so. I honestly didn't care what she thought about me wearing clothes in her bed either way. The reason I did was because I wasn't sure what would happen if they vanished while under the blankets.

That was _definitely_ it.

It just so happened to mean I'd be in bed with a hot, naked girl in my underwear as well. But, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

I slipped under the covers on my side of the bed, careful to position myself right at the edge. I didn't want to make it easy for her to notice me slipping out. I folded my arms over my chest and exhaled, feeling like I was five years old again. Pretending to be asleep? Sneaking out after dark? That was kiddy stuff.

I could always just walk out of the building, but I wasn't certain what the reaction to that would be. Would they try and stop me forcefully? From the sound of it, Rias had a sort of responsibility to keep the peace. It'd definitely explain why, despite being as angry as she had been, she hadn't stormed out and gone to kick the fallen angels asses.

Or maybe she was too weak to do it? I didn't think that was the case. I hadn't noticed it before, because I hadn't known what to look for, but each of the people in the building had their own distinct aura. Even where I was I could feel them.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I reached inside myself and pulled out more of my power. I pushed it out of my body, and spread it around me, out and out. The more I expelled, the clearer the feelings of the other auras became.

Still, being able to sense them didn't really tell me anything. I just wasn't experienced enough to interpret what I was reading yet.

I pulled the aura back inside my body and felt the other auras begin to blend together until it was impossible to tell them apart.

I wasn't certain how long I laid there like that, touching and shaping my demonic aura. I found a sort of zen in it, seeing how far I could compress it, and how I could shape and change it. I briefly mused about what would happen if I imagined the aura inside my turning into fire, but very, very quickly derailed that train of thought.

Eventually the door to the room opened and I tensed slightly, but otherwise made no movements.

"Are you awake, Harry?" Rias' voice murmured from near the door.

I stayed silent and motionless.

The sound of her footsteps against the hardwood floor were the only thing I for a few seconds, before she spoke again, this time a lot closer. "Harry, I know you're awake," she said to me. "I just want to talk."

My fake-sleep technique was flawless. I'd fooled Elaine more times than I could count. Still, Elaine hadn't been a devil. Maybe she had ways to tell?

"…I guess you are asleep," Rias said to herself absently before sighing.

I heard the ruffle of fabric and the unmistakable sounds of someone getting undressed. The other side of the bed dipped slightly for a moment, as I assumed she sat down on the edge.

After a few seconds more soft sounds filled my ears, the sound of a skirt being unclipped, a bra unlatched. It took all I had to remain motionless and to not take a peek.

I felt the sheets pull back and Rias slip into the bed on the other side. There was a moment of silent, before I heard a faint laugh and she shuffled around a bit, and then, the next thing I knew, I felt her soft body press against my side.

The unmistakable feeling of her breasts squashed against my shoulder was quickly followed by a leg slipping over my own and an arm slipping around my chest and coming to rest on my abdomen.

I had the sneaking suspicion for a brief moment, that she had intended to keep me there in the bed via her own body, her limbs wrapped around me to ensure I didn't sneak out. It definitely beat the straitjacket approach, that's for sure.

"You know," Rias spoke, her voice quiet and right beside my head. "I admire your bravery. I can definitely understand why Lady Serafall picked you to be one of her Knights." I felt her cool breath against my cheek from a foot away.

She fell silent, and for a few minute simply laid there, pressed against my side, her fingers beginning to trace circles on my stomach. A warm, lazy tingle began spreading across my body from where her skin touched mine

It took everything I had and more to stay still and keep my breathing calm and relaxed, and even then, as the faint scent of the shampoo in her hair reached my nose, I struggled.

"I really, really want to go and make them pay for what they did to my beautiful rook," Rias spoke, her voice trembling with anger. I felt her go rigid against me and her fingers briefly dug into my stomach. "How dare they kill one of our clients and have the nerve to harm my servant."

I had a sudden appreciation for just how dangerous the cute girl beside me could be. Then again, I'd learned the hard way to not make light of a girl's anger. You learn quickly when one of the girls you used to make fun of in middle school suddenly learned how to zap you with electricity on demand.

She inhaled deeply and I felt her soft, luscious breasts press against my arm, before she exhaled and the pressure lessened.

Despite my best efforts to remain unaffected, I couldn't avoid the natural reaction to a naked girl pressed against me.

From the faint sound of surprise that Rias made, she noticed as well.

She was still for a long moment, as if she was unsure how to react. The hand on my stomach hesitated briefly, before it began to slowly drift down wards towards the line of my underwear. Her fingertips traced along the edge of the band.

I barely managed to hold still. Everything inside me was screaming at me to react to her. A hot naked girl was pressed up against me and was all but physically molesting me. I wasn't certain I could call myself a man if I held back any longer.

It was the thought of Asia, and those wide, blue, innocent eyes that sustained me through the moment of tension as Rias' fingertips ran back and forth.

And then she sighed, and her hand slipped away from the danger zone. "I suppose you really are asleep," she murmured quietly, and I felt her presence against my body lessen as her leg slipped off mine, and her breasts departed from my shoulder.

I felt the bed shift slightly as Rias rolled onto her back beside me and adjusted the covers. The heat from her breasts against my arm faded rapidly, but I could almost still feel them, as if they were pressed against me.

I made a solemn vow to myself, then and there, than when I came back with Asia, there was no power in heaven or hell that was going to stop me from picking up where Rias left off. If I didn't take her up on her obvious interest, there was simply no way I'd be able to call myself a man in the future.

I wasn't certain how long I laid there, after Rias stopped her erotic attack, but eventually I heard her breathing calm down and lengthen into a slow, steady rhythm. I decided to test, to see if she was actually asleep, or if she was faking like I was.

I purposefully shifted myself in the bed, rolling over onto my side, facing away from her.

No response.

I opened my eyes, and found myself momentarily stunned by how bright the orange glow candles seemed to be in the otherwise dark room.

I waited for a minute, noticing nothing abnormal about her breathing at all, before I decided to act.

I gently tugged at the edge of the covers, and slipped my lower body out of the bed, before carefully sitting up, and moving off the bed. The hardwood floor felt cold against the bottom of my feet, and I felt a chill go up my spine.

I glanced over my shoulder as I did, and saw Rias laying there, on her side, her crimson hair spread out on her pillow. I couldn't help but lick my lips as I stared at her delicate features and the way the thin sheets draped across her body.

With a great deal with willpower, I turned away and grabbed the clothes Akeno had conjured for me, along with my shoes and socks, before I crept out of the room.

I was very careful to open the door as quietly as possible and slip out without a sound. I winced as I closed the door and it seemed to echo loudly in the hallway. I let out a short breath and quickly made my way through the hallway, walking in my underwear. The cold crept up through the bottom of my feet, and was joined by the chill of the air itself.

I made my way to the staircase and quickly descended.

"Good evening, Mr Dresden."

My heart jumped and I slipped on a step. I managed to grab onto the banister in time to avoid the untimely crash. My head snapped towards the source of the voice, and I found it sitting on one of the couches in the lobby.

A pair of grey eyes looked at me, faint amusement evident in them.

The blond boy from earlier sat there in his uniform, his hands folded upon his lap over a sword and with a pleasant smile upon his lips. His uniform was still ruffled and slightly dirty. I took that to mean he had never left the clubhouse, and had been waiting.

It made me wonder if he was there as the night time guard.

His eyes briefly flickered over me and I could tell he wanted to chuckle at my state of dress, but a gentleman's innate politeness held it back. It sort of made me hate him more.

I, in turn did my best to be diplomatic. "Your name's Kiba, right? You're up a bit late."

He stood up from the couch and continued to smile. "Yes, we haven't formally been introduced, but my name is Yuuto Kiba," he introduced himself to me. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Harry Dresden," I told him my name as I began to pull on my pants and shirt, before adding on, "Likewise."

"Are you going out for a late night walk?" Kiba asked me curiously, his light grey eyes watching me as I got dressed. They made me slightly uncomfortable.

"Something like that," I agreed as I moved over to a couch on the opposite side of the lobby and pulled on my shoes.

"Perhaps I can join you?" He offered me a cheerful smile. "I find walks are always more pleasant when you have someone to talk to."

"Thanks, but no thanks," I told him bluntly. "I think a bit of alone time is exactly what I need right now."

He was silent for a moment. "That's unfortunate," Kiba said. "I think it'd definitely be unpleasant for both of us, If Buchou were to wake up and I were to still be here. I'm not the kind of person that likes to lie, you know?" He told me, his smile widening ever so slightly.

What… what a prick. I stared at him for a long moment in disbelief. "Really?"

"Really."

I regarded him for a moment and played his words over in my head. "You're not going to stop me?" I asked after a moment.

He shook his head.

That was all the answer I really needed. "Fine," I said to him. "You can come." I tugged my shoelaces tight and stood up.

"You do know that you're likely to get killed right?" Kiba asked, his voice filled with honest curiosity. "Against a group of Fallen Angels and Exorcists, even Buchou or Akeno would be hard pressed to manage such a feat."

"Well, it's a good thing I have a nosy guy like you to watch my back, isn't it?" I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. I took a deep breath and began to walk towards the exit.

As I did, Kiba fell in step beside me. "Yes, I thought so," he agreed with a smile. "Between two Knights, it might be more than possible to accomplish your objective."

I blinked in surprise. He was a Knight as well? I resisted the urge to ask him questions, and instead I pushed the doors to the building open quietly and stepped out. I shut the door behind us as Kiba exited as well.

The night was clear of any clouds, and the moon was high above in the sky, a bright crescent of light in the distance. Somehow, it made me feel a bit more reassured of myself.

If I had thought the air in the clubhouse had been cold, it was nothing compared to the chill and moistness of the air outside. The school grounds were covered in a fine layer of dew and the wind rustled the trees in the distance, filling the empty night with a soothing sound.

We walked in silence for a while. I wasn't certain what to say to him. I may have disliked him at first glance, but right now, wasn't he offering to help me? A part of me, deep down, told me that being unpleasant to the guy beside me was the right thing to do, but was it?

"Why offer to come?" I asked, my voice quiet as we walked.

"I don't know anything about that girl—Asia? I believe you called her." He walked silently for a few moments, before he spoke again, his voice taking on an almost hateful quality as he spoke. "I dislike Fallen Angels and Exorcists immensely. It wouldn't be incorrect to say that I hate them."

"That's… a good reason," I finished after a moment. I was curious about _why_ exactly he hated them, but considering I'd only met one the previous day and I wanted to kill them, I'd say it was pretty understandable, all things considered.

We fell silent again as walked, and eventually we made our way out of the Academy grounds and into the town proper. As we walked, I began to wonder about certain things, such as the demonic power that Akeno had taught me about, and whether there were other things I needed to know. A thought hit me, and I turned to Kiba and asked. "Say, is there anything I need to know about being a Knight?"

Kiba blinked a few times, surprised by the question. "There are a few things, yes." He nodded, acknowledging my question. "Simply put, our greatest strength is our increased speed," he explained to me. "You may have already noticed, but your reaction time and ability to move quickly has increased from when you were human."

I nodded slowly. That much was true. I'd been able to keep up at a speed I hadn't thought possible against Raynare before she burst out with her fancy toy armour. "I did notice that."

"That passive boost is very useful, however, by utilizing our demonic powers correctly, we're able to further increase the speed we can move at, as well as our reaction time even further beyond what can be considered normal."

"How?" I demanded to know and stopped walking, turning to face him.

Kiba stopped after a few more steps, and turned back to face me. He looked like he was internally debating on what to say to me. In the end he smiled. "It's rather simple in principle, but it can be difficult in execution, especially in the middle of intense combat. Simply put, to further increase your abilities as a Knight, you need to enhance your body with your demonic power." He turned back to the road and continued to walk.

I stared after him for a moment, my brow furrowed before I quickly caught up to him. "Is that it?" I asked dubiously.

He nodded without looking at me, his grey eyes focused on the road ahead. "Yes, Akeno was teaching you how to utilize your power before we arrived, wasn't she?"

I nodded and focused on the road ahead.

From the way he made it sound, it was as simple as focusing my aura on my body itself. I felt that blindly throwing demonic power at my body without knowing what I was doing was a bad decision, but he seemed confident enough in telling me what to do, and so simply. It couldn't be too difficult, could it?

My answer came in the form of a sudden shift in the way Kiba felt beside me. It was hard to describe in simple terms, but the closest I could get to what it felt like was 'compression'. His aura suddenly seemed to contract and the next instant there was a flutter of fabric and he had vanished.

I stared for a brief moment, wide eyed at where he had been standing, that had been _exactly_ like how Raynare had moved after she had pulled out that red gauntlet. Pure speed which I was unable to keep track of.

I spun around and tried to figure out where he had gone. It took me a few seconds to find him as my gaze swept over the street, but I did in the end. He stood at the end of the street, more than a hundred meters away, looking back at me with a smile on his features.

"…Show off," I muttered under my breath half-heartedly, before taking a moment to go over what I had felt in that brief instance.

He'd pulled in his aura tightly, that much I knew for certain. But then what? He moved so quickly I wasn't certain what had happened.

I considered it for a moment and made a few educated guesses. He'd no doubt reinforced his legs with his aura to increase the speed. He'd have likely done the same for his senses. It made little sense to give yourself super speed if you couldn't keep up with yourself.

I started working out power calculations in my head before it occurred to me that I was over thinking it. Hadn't Akeno said it from the very start? Imagination was the key.

I took a deep breath and imagined. My aura contracted around me as Kiba's had, and I suddenly felt like a guitar string that had just been struck. For a second, I was honestly worried that I might go flying apart.

I took a step forward and, the next instant I felt myself move.

The world blurred around me, yet somehow I could make sense of it. I crossed the distance in front of me in a single, smooth rush.

My foot touched the ground at my destination.

And I unceremoniously face planted a few feet in front of the pretty boy Knight.

To his credit, Kiba didn't laugh at me, and as I pushed myself off the still warm tar of the road, he actually offered me his hand. I gave him a begrudging smile before clasping it and pulling myself to my feet. He was apparently stronger than he looked.

"That was a good first attempt," Kiba told me as I stood up and dusted off my conjured clothes. "The landing is always a bit difficult if you aren't prepared for it."

I frowned and nodded, before reaching up and gingerly touching my fingertips against my nose. It stung to the touch, nothing major, but I wasn't going to win any modelling awards for the next week.

"Shall we?" the blond offered me with a smile, before, turning towards the city, and vanishing.

I couldn't help but grin. He probably hadn't intended it to be a challenge, but I sure as hell took it as one. My body flooded with my aura and I repeated the previous steps, and my body thrummed before I took the step forward.

Again, the world blur, but this time as I reached my destination, I didn't trip. One foot landed, and the other quickly followed as I stepped forwards, bleeding off the momentum as I appeared beside Kiba, only for him to vanish again as he jumped forwards again.

I began to move my aura, and found it becoming easier, and easier with practice. The next jump found me landing beside Kiba, and rather than let the energy go, I held onto it tightly and the moment he looked to move, I jumped as well.

As the world blurred around me as I jumped, I noticed something very startling. I could see Kiba, a few feet in front of me, for that instant as he moved through the space between where we had started and where we had landed.

This time, I didn't wait for Kiba to make the first move, and the moment my foot touched upon the asphalt, I pushed forward again and my body thrummed like a live wire.

Rather than simply jumping along the road as we had done, I decided to be fancy, and took aim a little higher.

I launched myself forward and an instant later landed upon the top of a telegraph pole on one foot, and barely avoided slipping forwards and falling half a dozen meters to a concussion. My arms flared out and I managed to balance myself in time.

I took a deep breath and steadied myself. The muscles in my face hurt from how much I was smiling. The feeling of moving that fast, it was exhilarating. I felt amazing. I felt like a superhero, like I could leap a building in a single bound.

After a moment of considering, I realized that I _could_ in fact do that. Landing it on the other hand, was a fifty fifty at this point.

"Mr Dresden!" Kiba called from a bit down the road, catching my attention with a light wave of his hand.

I grinned and pressed my shoe against the edge of the power pole beneath me, before I pushed off with a burst of power flooding my body.

"You're a very quick learner!" Kiba praised me with a polite smile as I arrived next to him. "I was unable to make rapid jumps like that until a few weeks after I became a devil," he told me, his voice filled with an earnest delight at my ability.

"If you keep talking like that I'm going to blush," I told him, my voice light and devoid of any snark, for once.

He simply smiled at me and laughed. "Do you think you're ready for the next bit?" Kiba asked, his grey eyes twinkling in amusement.

"Hit me with it."

"I don't believe I have to say it to you, but I'm certain you observed that it becomes hard to keep track of your surroundings."

I nodded. "Everything is blurry," I acknowledged, before frowning and taking a moment to think about it. There hadn't been much to hear, but even the background noise had been incoherent. For a brief moment I wondered why I had been able to see Kiba when we moved at the same time, but quickly realized that I had no idea whatsoever in regards to how 'demonic power' even worked.

Somehow I doubted asking would turn up a proper answer either, Akeno's method for using the power was basically 'imagine it and make it happen'. It didn't sound very scientific at all.

"There is only a certain level to which we can enhance our senses," Kiba told me, "There will always be an issue of them being unable to make sense of what they experience as the agility we use climbs higher and higher. At a certain point it becomes unfeasible to use our ordinary five senses in combat."

I could see where he was going with it. In fact, I would wager that I'd already stumbled upon what he was talking about while I had been in bed, waiting to sneak out. I grinned at Kiba. "A sixth sense, right? Using the aura from our demonic power to perceive things around us."

Kiba stared at me, surprised. "R-Right," he agreed after a moment and he laughed. "You're definitely very talented in this area!" he told me, beaming at me, his expression brightening. "The Leviathan certainly has an eye for hidden qualities."

I wasn't quite certain how best to respond, and in the end I didn't need to. It looked like he was going into teacher mode.

"The information gathered by our senses has to be relayed through our nervous system and then has to be translated by our brain into something we can make sense of. Normally the slight difference is unnoticeable to us, but as we approach higher speeds, the information becomes unreliable, partly because of how long it takes, and partly because our senses cannot make sense of what they are sensing."

I felt a minor sense of relief as something that approached common sense finally appeared in relation to the demonic power that I had been gifted with. I'd learned about the nervous system in school and what he said made sense if you thought about it.

"However, utilizing our aura allows us to bypass the intermittent process entirely. Our aura transmits what it perceives directly to our spirit, allowing us to act on information the moment it perceives it."

My first instinct was to attempt to compare what he said to what I knew about magic. Thankfully, I was able to suppress that reaction and instead focused on what he said. "Alright," I said after a moment. "When I tried to use my aura before, I ended up spreading it out, and I could sort of feel your auras against it, but that doesn't seem that useful at high speeds."

"It doesn't surprise me," Kiba said to me. "Like any sense it takes some getting used to. Buchou, when I first learned how to do it described it to me as opening your eyes for the first time, and finding that you are staring into the sun."

There was that name again 'Buchou'. For some reason the magical talking power that seemed to translate everything else that was said to me, wasn't quite working for it.

"What does Buchou mean?" I asked Kiba bluntly. "My universal translator isn't working on it."

Kiba blinked a few times, before he let out a genuine laugh. "S-Sorry," he chuckled and continued to smile. "Rias prefers for the members of the Occult Research Club to call her Buchou in school. The correct translation would be 'Head of Department' but she insists specifically on the word Buchou. She has an," he struggled with the word for a moment, "affection, for Japanese culture."

I didn't know how to respond to that. "Good to know," I told him after a moment and motioned for him to continue walking with me. "So, I basically just have to get used to the aura sense thing?" I asked as we walked.

"Yes, it's the only way. There are no shortcuts, but how quickly you get used to it depends on your level of compatibility with your innate power. From what I've seen you shouldn't have an issue with it if you start practicing." Kiba said as we walked across an empty intersection and soon crossed a familiar bridge.

We walked in silence for a few minutes, and as we did, my mind started to wander, and I began to think about where we were headed. To say I wasn't nervous would be a lie, but more then that I was determined. My mind kept playing over the fight between the fallen angel and myself, and my humiliating defeat at her hands.

I couldn't help but think, that if I had been able to hit her with the same force I had He Who Walks Behind, she wouldn't have been an issue. I couldn't quite remember what I had done to craft the spell that had unmade the creature. It had only been days, but the memory was already starting to get blurry.

I remembered anger, tons and tons of anger and I remembered not caring if I lived or died, caring only about killing the thing in front of me. Somehow, I knew, if I reached that state again, that same level of desperation and hatred, then I'd be able to pull out that power. I'd used it against Justin as well, if unintentionally.

I couldn't help but sigh, and look up into the clear night sky.

The stars seemed so distant and faint under the brightness of the moon and the lights from the buildings around us. I could barely make them out. I felt none of the same sudden warmth that I remembered as I gazed upon them.

It didn't seem like a convenient power was going to fall into my lap for this one.

Which meant that I was going to actually have to plan ahead.

I turned to the blond devil walking beside me and asked. "What can you do Kiba?" My eyes briefly flickered to his hip, where the sword he had earlier rested, sheathed within an ornate scabbard that was strapped to his waist.

Kiba took the question in stride. "I'm quite adept at swordplay," he told me with a smile, his hand gently patting on the handle of his sword.

I had figured as much.

If I was being perfectly honest, if he was able to move at the speed we had earlier, with perfect perception and wield a sword proficiently, he was probably deadlier in a fight then I was.

Cold steel hurt just as much as magic did, and was a lot more efficient.

There were tons of stuff that could survive a fireball to the face, but very few that could take having their head cut off. It had never been a concern of mine before, but I could definitely appreciate how effective a weapon it was in his hands.

This… this could definitely work.

Raynare wasn't invincible. Before, without relying on anything but my body, I'd been able to keep up with her. With my newly acquired speed, there was no way in hell that she'd be able to keep up. If we ambushed her before she knew we were there, we could easily kill her before she managed to bring out that crystalline gauntlet that had allowed her to beat me.

It took me a few seconds to realize, that without hesitation, or another thought, I'd been happy to kill that woman. It sent a chill down my spine at how cold blooded my initial response was.

My mind flashed back to Justin, and the burning house. To that silver knife, and the bowl that Lea held beneath his neck. The heat of the flames as they licked the walls and burned away what was once my home. The acrid smoke that filled the air. I felt sickly and nauseous as I remembered, and even worse as I realized that it felt natural to kill Raynare.

I had loved Justin with all my heart. He'd done so much for me, that even now, I was grateful to an extent for him picking me up from that orphanage. I'd killed Justin, despite that love, because of his betrayal. Compared to that, killing Raynare seemed almost pedestrian emotion wise.

She was a Fallen Angel after all, it hardly seemed to be something I should have concerned myself with.

That thought, that careless disregard for life, as twisted and evil as it may have been—It terrified me beyond what I could express, because those weren't the feelings of a normal person.

Those were the feelings that lurked inside the heart of a monster.

The sudden fear I felt at the horrific way my thoughts had gone must have shown on my features, because a moment later Kiba gave me a concerned look. "Are you alright?" he asked, and a hand came up and he grasped my shoulder. An awkward action considering it was as high as his eyes.

"Y-Yeah," I said, giving him a strained smile. "I was just thinking about something." I took a deep breath and held it in for a few moments, before exhaling. I felt some of the tension in me leave as I did.

"Are you worried about our chances?" He asked, giving me a reassuring look as his hand on my shoulder squeezed lightly before it dropped down to his side. "I'm certain between the two of us we'll be able to take care of them," he reassured me.

"It's not that." I shook my head. "Between the two of us, I'm certain we can take them out without trouble, especially if we catch them off guard," I told him as I started to walk again.

What I wasn't certain about, was my sudden nonchalance towards murder, even if the people in question _did_ deserve it. But, I couldn't start doubting myself. I couldn't afford the hesitation that doubting myself would bring. We'd only have one chance at this.

As we continued to walk, the scenery around us changed from suburban to more metropolitan as we entered the city actual. The lights in the buildings were still on, but it seemed that most of the people had gone to bed. There were still a few people here and there, mostly thug-looking types, looking like they were loitering.

"Let's go over our plan," I said to Kiba, changing the subject.

"That's a good idea." Kiba looked happy that I had brought it up. "Since there are only two of us, I believe it would not be advantageous to split up," he said. "In addition, because of the incident with Koneko this evening, I do not believe that they'll be expecting an attack. In situations like this, it is usually preferable to gather intel on an enemy, rather than launch an immediate attack."

"Right," I agreed. "That's the smart thing to do." I frowned and considered what I had seen at the church. "I broke the doors to the church when I blew Raynare through them, so I imagine they'll either have fixed them, or have someone watching."

Kiba nodded thoughtfully and continued to look ahead as we walked. "On the other hand," he said. "It is even more likely that they'll have someone guarding the back entrance."

A sudden thought occurred to me. "Say, do fallen angels need to sleep?" I asked suddenly.

Kiba looked surprised at the question, and a moment later his brows furrowed as he considered the question. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure. I've never heard any anecdotal evidence either way," Kiba said.

I folded my arms across my chest and considered. "The exorcists would though, right?"

Kiba blinked, and smiled. "Yes, that's right, they would. Though they have been trained to be deadly to Devils such as ourselves, in the end, they are only human."

"Yeah…I guess they are," I said as I stared ahead. "Let's focus on getting Asia out," I said firmly. "If we can do that much I'll be happy."

Kiba's smile dimmed briefly, before he glanced over to me and nodded. "Of course, I'll support you fully and make sure that we can escape with the nun," he told me. "If we take too long, I have no doubt that Buchou will come, and bring Akeno with her. If that happens we'll be in a lot more danger than the fallen angels," he said, his voice light and self-amused.

"What can they do?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I'd rather leave it to them to explain to you," Kiba told me. "But, I can tell you that Buchou is known as the Crimson Ruin Princess, and Akeno is known as the Priestess of Thunder, though personally I think of her as 'The President's Hitman'," He joked lightly.

Rias' nickname gave nothing away to what she was capable of, Akeno on the other hand 'Priestess of Thunder' that was pretty obvious. Still, even if she said that lightning was easy for devils to use, to be known for it was definitely something to pay attention to.

"What do they call you?" I asked, curious about the guy beside me.

"I don't have a prestigious title like Buchou, or Akeno," he admitted. "I am simply content to serve Rias as her Knight."

I wasn't certain how to respond to that and in the end I didn't. Instead, I found myself re-evaluating my initial impression of Kiba. He wasn't anything like I had assumed he would be. From his looks, I had thought he would have been arrogant, full of himself. Looks can be deceiving, I mused.

We began to walk in silence through the city, and after a while we found ourselves on the other side, and soon found ourselves in sight of the church that sat on top of the hill in the distance. It was visible, thanks to the moonlight, but there were no lights on, or any signs that anyone was even there. Even the houses around it on the slopes were all blacked out.

Probably because their occupants were asleep, but inside, I couldn't help but think the worse.

The tension at the back of my neck was barely noticeable at the distance we were at, but it was there.

Neither I, nor Kiba said anything and we began to walk forwards, and made our way along the winding road that led up the hill. The night was quiet, and all that I could hear was the faint sounds of insects in the background, and the clank of the sword on Kiba's hip as he walked.

As we got further and further up the hill, I noticed Kiba's hand drifting down to the hilt of his sword and resting there. The sound of it faded as he did so, becoming muted.

"Mr Dresden," Kiba said suddenly, his voice quiet. "Let's take a shortcut," he suggested and gestured towards one of the houses on the higher side of the hill.

You know those 'shortcuts' that can only be considered shortcuts because of how much time they take off a trip? You know, the ones where you're likely to fall and break a leg or get a nice new cut on your arm from placing your hand on the wrong part of a fence?

This was one of those shortcuts.

The slope of the hill, with all the houses on it was far from forgiving. The people around here hadn't apparently wanted a concrete jungle, and instead had gone for a more environmentally friendly forest instead.

That had been my first thought, and then I remembered that I was practically superhuman and could break the world record for long jump a dozen times over.

"Right," I said, blinking a few times. "After you," I offered.

He nodded shortly and turned, before bounding off. He hadn't quite gone superspeed, but the distance he crossed with his jumps were not something I would have thought I was capable of, if I hadn't done similar feats earlier in the day when I had been attacked by Raynare.

I took a deep breath and jumped after Kiba.

It shouldn't have surprised me that I managed a twelve foot jump, but somehow it still did. I shouldn't have broken out into a big, wide smile of unadulterated glee, but I did that as well as I landed on the roof tiles of a particularly average house.

Kiba hadn't waited, and had already continued on, jumping further along the way up the Hill, he bypassed the next street entirely and landed on the roof of a house on the other side of the street, and then the next, and next until he stopped and turned, waiting for me.

I stretched my arms out and grinned as I tensed the muscles in my legs and launched myself after him, intending to follow the route he had taken.

The wind roared and swept through my hair as I flung myself with reckless abandon across the gap in the road, just in time to see the headlights of a car as it rounded the bend of the hill.

I landed on the next house a moment later and heard the screech of the brakes being slammed on in a panic by the driver.

My initial instinct, like all high school students, was to turn around and look at the source of the loud noise. I managed to rise above my instincts, however, and continued on, rather than give the driver a chance to see 'what' exactly had jumped through the air in front of him.

My feet only touched the next roof for a second, before I jumped again and climbed higher, and higher amongst the tiered housing on the side of the hill.

When I arrived where Kiba was, he gave me an amused look. "It sounds like you gave that driver quite the scare," he said to me conversationally, his voice as polite as ever.

"Eat me," I told him bluntly, before grinning. "Serves him right for being out at three in the morning.

Kiba looked at me, his eyebrows raising in surprise, before he chuckled, as if I'd said something particularly funny. Unfortunately I wasn't in on the joke and couldn't help but scowl in response slightly.

Instead of demanding to know what was funny, I glanced up. The church was in spitting distance. The road behind the house we were on was the only thing between us and the church grounds. Well, that and enough trees and bushes to hide an army, or perhaps just two devils on a mission.

Kiba nodded to me and dropped down from the roof of the building we were on to the road behind it silently.

I followed on and landed on the asphalt with a bit of a thud. I couldn't help but frown. That hadn't been cool at all. When you landed you had to either make no noise, or shatter the entire ground beneath you with the force of it. Comic books had taught me that much. If something was worth doing stylishly, it was worth doing in the extreme of either direction.

I held back my urge to ask him how he had done it, and instead gestured for him to move towards the tree line that surrounded the walls that lined the edges of the church's premise.

It was at that point, that I felt a bit of appreciation for the lack of upkeep of the church grounds. It may not have looked good, but it certainly provided cover. Thinking about it, I realized that it worked both ways, and no doubt provided them a bit of a screen for whatever insidious activities fallen angels got up to in their spare time.

There was a joke in there somewhere.

As we hid there, amongst the shadows of the trees and stone wall, the sounds of the night seemed to lessen slightly and the faint chirp of crickets around us seemed to die away. The night became eerily quiet. It was the kind of quiet that you could hear your heartbeat in.

I exhaled slowly, softly and looked at the church.

The front doors had been closed somewhat, but there was a large bit that was splintered, near the middle where I had blasted Raynare through. I couldn't see any lights beyond it, it looked as if the church was empty, but, I knew better.

The tension at the back of my neck had steadily risen as we had gotten closer and closer. My instincts told me they were there, and I wasn't about to stop trusting them. They'd gotten me through some pretty difficult situations the past few days.

"Alright," I said, my voice quiet.

I looked to the blond haired devil a few feet away from me. He looked focused, one of his hands held the scabbard of his sword, and the other rested idly on the hilt.

We briefly made eye contact and he nodded to me.

Without a word we both moved, slipping from the shadows of the trees and crossing the seemingly vast distance between the trees and the steps at the front of the church.

Each step I took up the stairs sounded like a thundering boom in the quiet night. I knew it was just my ears playing tricks on me, in the absence of any other sound, but all the same it made me wince.

The moment we hit the landing we both moved to the front wall of the church, slipping into the shade provided by the massive building. We both took place on either side of the large heavy wooden door and waited.

And waited.

Nothing happened.

No sudden appearance of a fallen angel, no scream, or call to alert.

I took a deep breath and leaned over to the gap at the middle of the door, where the wood had been splintered and looked into the church.

The large open area was dark, yet somehow, I could make out everything inside. It may have been from the large stain glass windows, that let in all the moonlight, but somehow I knew that wasn't the case. The light should have been messing with my ability to see anything. The contrast should have been too much, yet, I could make out the pews, and the altar down the far end easily.

I pulled back, and looked over to Kiba. For a moment I wanted to ask him, but it wasn't the time or place. I didn't need to know. Compared to super speed, night vision seemed almost unremarkable. I nodded to Kiba, and jerked my chin towards the door. He returned the nod sharply and lifted his hand from the hilt of his sword and pressed it against the varnished wood that made up the entrance of the building.

He pushed, and a faint whine came from the hinges of the door as he pushed it open, the bare amount for us to slip through. It only lasted for a second, but it echoed loudly inside the church. I couldn't help but wince. Going through the front door was the most stupid plan ever!

Church doors always made too much noise in the movies when they were opened.

I slipped in after Kiba and quickly moved to the side, ducking behind the closest pew as I did. I had to crouch down extra low due to my height. A stale smell reached my nose and made it crinkle. It smelt like this place had been long since abandoned.

I glanced at Kiba and gave him a look, only to find him staring at something.

That something was a statue, or what had once been one. A few feet away from us stood what was left of a marble statue. Around the base were there scattered remains. It wasn't as though it had simply been broken, and part of it had fallen off. No, whoever had done it had taken malicious glee in smashing it to pieces. All that remained was the base and chunks of marble around the base, some as big as my head, others as tiny as a marble.

It took me a few moments, but I soon realized that it wasn't an isolated incident. All the statues, all the relics and religious icons in the church had been destroyed, or otherwise maimed.

I wasn't in any way religious at all, but even so, seeing the desecration of a holy place made me feel sick to my stomach. The fallen angels had made themselves at home that was for sure.

I couldn't help but frown, as we crouched there, the church otherwise silent.

I was starting to think that everyone actually was asleep.

I peeked above the pew we were hiding behind and glanced around, before, noticing nothing, and no one, I stood up.

A second later, Kiba stood up as well, a frown on his lips. It looked like neither of us expected this sort of lukewarm reception.

I took a moment to look around the back of the church, and spied a door that looked like it lead into the back rooms. I silently pointed it out to Kiba, before I stepped around the pew and began to walk, careful to make my footsteps as quiet as possible.

A second later, faint footsteps began to echo through the room. I spun around to tell Kiba to be quiet, only to realize, a second later that they weren't coming from behind me.

They were coming from beyond one of the doors in front of me.

—~—


	7. Chapter 7

—~—

The footsteps stopped and there was a moment of silence that stretched far longer than a moment had the right to, and the handle turned. The sound of the latch pulling back was deafening.

The door opened.

And in that moment, I threw myself towards the door. My hand rose up and I drew on the tension of the entire situation, and the fear of being found out. I poured it all into my fist and crafted it into a hammer of kinetic energy, ready to unleash the moment I swing my arm.

By the time the door had opened, I'd already crossed the gap between where I had been and it. My fist had been thrust forward with the intention of doing grievous bodily harm to whoever had the misfortune to have stepped through the door. It was only at the last second, that I caught sight of a pair of sleepily green eyes.

Asia Argento, the pretty blonde nun that I had been intent on rescuing from the fallen angels, stared blearily into the room, completely unaware of the danger she was in.

My muscles screamed in agony as I wrenched my arm back, barely avoiding splattering her all over the corridor behind her.

Asia's eyes widened, showing the whites around them perfectly as I suddenly appeared a foot in front of her, my massive form looming over her comparatively tiny one.

To her credit, Asia didn't immediately scream in shock. Though, that may have been for lack of ability to, rather than peace of mind. She stared at me, unblinkingly, mouth opened in shock and I heard a faint thud as a thick tome slipped from her hands and landed on the ground.

"Asia, are you alright?" I asked after a moment, before realizing I had my hand still raised. I quickly dropped it and allowed the energy I had drawn to dissipate.

"M-Mr Dresden?" Asia finally spoke, her lips moving just barely. She blinked once, and then again, and again and it looked like she had passed through the shock of my sudden appearance. "W-What are you doing here?" Her eyes briefly drifted behind me, before focusing on my face again. Her hands drifted up and clasped over each other, pressing against her chest in an almost prayer-like position.

It was that action, more than anything that made me realize the state of dress she was in. Before, when I had first met her, Asia had been garbed proper nun attire which did a very good job at obfuscating her figure. Asia, at that moment had foregone the traditional religious attire, and wore a modest, pure white negligee that came down to mid-thigh. It contoured to her figure marvellously and accentuated her—comparatively—modest bust.

She looked scared and confused and it took me far too long to realize that my staring wasn't making her feel any better.

I managed a smile after a few seconds and focused on her face, rather than her body. "I came to save you," I told her, my voice quiet. "We need to get out of here now, before they realize." I reached across and grasped one of her hands that were pressed to her chest.

She shook her head, and her blonde hair went fluttering in the air. "I-I can't," she stammered and pulled her hand out of my grasp. "I can't, Mr Dresden," she said, her eyes becoming glassy. "I-I have to stay." She crouched down and picked up the book she had dropped. I caught sign of a gold engraved cross on the front, and felt an aching at the back of my eyes, like I was staring into a bright light.

I quickly looked away from the bible in her hands and stared at her in confusion. What she said made no sense. She had to stay? No she didn't, and she wouldn't if I had any say about it. "I don't understand," I told her and gave her a gentle smile and extended my hand to her, this time not just grabbing hers. "But, I want to—can you tell me once we get out of here, Asia?"

The longer we stood there talking the more likely it was that one of the stray exorcists, or worse, one of the fallen angels would take notice.

Asia stared at me, her eyes filled with sadness. I could have sworn she was about to start to cry. Somehow, she managed a small, sad smile. "This…this is a trial that I have to endure, Mr Dresden," she said softly. A small hand came up and clasped the silver cross she wore around her neck. "This is a trial that the Lord has given me, so I have to endure it."

I didn't understand at all. For a brief moment I thought she was being serious, that 'God' had actually told her that she had to deal with the Fallen Angels. But everything I knew about Christianity told me it was bullshit. It was half again as likely that one of the fallen angels had pretended to be God and told her.

"Do you actually think God would force you to be around them? They're fallen angels, Asia." I asked, doing my best to keep the anger out of my voice.

Asia flinched all the same and clasped the crucifix on her neck tighter. "It's because I didn't pray enough," she murmured, casting her eyes down. "I'm clumsy, and stupid and… and…" I couldn't make out her expression, but the sound of droplets hitting the floor told me more than enough.

My heart broke with every word she said. I had no idea what the Fallen Angels had said to her. I didn't know what type of sickening Stockholm syndrome this was, but I didn't give a damn. I was willing to drag her out of there kicking and screaming if that's what it took.

I couldn't help but look away from her for a moment, and I glanced behind me. Kiba stood a few meters away, near the second row of pews. He had a blank look on his features as he regarded both Asia and I, but I could tell he wasn't particularly enthused with me taking time to 'chat' in enemy territory.

When I turned back to Asia, I found her still with her head ducked, her shoulders shaking as she silently cried. I found myself disgusted with the sight before me.

Not with Asia. Never her.

I was disgusted with what her 'God' had allowed to happen to her. I had no idea what her circumstances were, what had driven her into the arms of a fallen angel like Raynare. But for Asia, a nun, a woman who had been brought up her entire life in the service of 'the Lord' to have ended up like this.

I couldn't help but think that it would have been better to live as a devil and curse his name. Something like that, a God that didn't care for his followers at all.

That kind of god was better off dead.

"Asia, we're getting out of here," I told her.

She looked up at me, her eyes slightly red, and her cheeks tear stained. She opened her mouth, no doubt to protest.

"I don't care what you say," I told her bluntly. "Curse me all you want afterward, but I'm getting you out of here. I'm not leaving you here to rot with them."

Asia stared at me and gave a faint hiccup. She looked like she didn't understand what I was saying—but more importantly then that, she had stopped crying. "M-Mr Dresden?" she whispered in confusion.

I smiled at her warmly. "Call me Harry."

It took a lot of effort not to meet her eye in that moment, I had to try extra hard to stay focused on the bridge of her nose. It was that, I think, that allowed me to see the barrel of the gun pointing at my head from behind her.

"Harry!" Kiba shouted suddenly, but I was already moving before his words reached my ears.

My body had flooded with demonic power without hesitation and I had I ducked forwards, scooping an arm around Asia's body and pulling her slim figure against mine before I throwing myself backwards. Asia's scream of surprise was muffled against my shirt.

There was a flash in the muzzle of the gun, and something shot out of the barrel at where I had been standing. At the same time, a blinding pain erupted above my rib cage.

My efforts had carried me to the third row of pews. When I say that, I was being literal. My feet landed on the tops of the third pew, and I barely managed to balance long enough to step back down onto the one behind it.

The shot rang out through the church loud enough to wake up the dead, and a second later, something bright slammed into the pew that had been directly behind me and punched a large hole cleanly through the wood.

My body ached and my nerves screamed in pain at me as a debilitating sensation rocked my world. I managed to hold it together long enough to set Asia down on one of the pews before I collapsed down against them. At the same time, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kiba vanish in a blur of speed and slam into the priest, his sword drawn and swinging down in a lethal looking arc.

With considerably effort, I managed to stop my body shaking from the nerve wracking pain, and looked down at my chest, my eyes wide in confusion.

There, slightly off centre, still smoking, was a charred imprint of a crucifix. I stared down at it, in complete confusion, before it dawned on me.

When I had grabbed Asia, I had pressed her against my chest to protect her, and came into contact with the crucifix around her neck. The charred flesh on my chest ached painfully, throbbing with overwhelming pain. Steam and smoke hissed out of the wound and I felt my energy begin to practically flood out of me.

I grasped the pew in front of me for a second, attempting to hold myself up, before my limbs gave and I collapsed painfully to the ground.

"M-Mr Harry!" A terrified voice called out from somewhere near me. It barely registered in my ears. My senses were dulled. Everything ached. It was worse than when I'd been impaled through the chest.

I found myself face down against the cold stone of the church floor. It was almost a balm to the all-encompassing pain from my chest. It made me reluctant to try and pull myself up, but it didn't stop me. With a grunt of pain I pushed my hands against the floor and attempted to lift myself up.

I got as far as an inch off the ground, before my muscles turned to jelly again and I smacked my face into the ground again. I gave a groan of protest at the sudden spike of pain on my forehead.

In the background I could almost make out the sounds of a fight. The shriek of metal clashing with something solid and the occasional bang of a gun firing.

I felt someone's hands grab my shoulder and attempt to roll me over. It could only have been Asia. With the little strength I had in my limbs, I pushed off and helped her, rolling onto my back.

Asia's eyes were wide with concern and fear as they met mine. I barely avoided direct eye contact in time. "M-Mr Harry," she whispered out, her eyes flickering down to the still smouldering wound on my chest. "I-I'm so sorry!" she cried out, anguish filling her voice that sounded every bit as real as the pain in my chest was.

"Mmm'fine," I said, my voice slurred slightly. My face felt numb.

The fear in Asia's eyes died away and determination seemed to set in. Her eyes were still red and glassy, but they filled with resolve. She brought her hands up in front of her, and there was a faint sparkle of green light. I briefly took note of two rings that were on her hands. I could have sworn they hadn't been there a second earlier.

Her hands were stretched out over my body, and a green light began to fill the edges of my vision. I realized that the light was coming from her outstretched hands and it seemed to sink down into my chest. It surprised me a second later that I began to feel the pain in my body drain away.

The sensation was centred on my chest, but soon enough it seemed to spread throughout my entire body. Pains and aches I had become accustomed to over the past few days began to vanish and I began to feel…amazing, as if the light from Asia was sweeping away every source of pain that I had accumulated.

The light from her hands faded away and a look of relief found its way onto Asia's pretty features.

I laid there, staring up at her, my eyes wide in amazement.

"A-Asia?" I managed to get out her name, my voice filled with confusion at what had just happened. With little to no effort, I found myself able to sit up. I couldn't help but turn my gaze down to my shirt and marvel at the utter lack of pain that I felt. My hands came up and tugged at my shirt.

Through the charred crucifix gap in my shirt, I saw nothing but unblemished skin. I turned my gaze up to Asia, and found her smiling at me, her features set in a look of pure happiness at seeing that I was alright.

Her crucifix dangling from her neck innocuously, as if it hadn't been the source of the mind-rending agony that I had been in moments before. "You're alright…" she whispered out. "I-I'm so glad." Without another word she moved to throw herself down on me and attempted to embrace me.

I panicked and threw my hands up, catching her by the shoulders in time to avoid a second helping of holy wrath, much to her confusion as she stared across at me, her eyes wide in confusion and hurt at my refusal of her embrace.

"Asia," I said to her gently as my hands gripped her shoulders equally as gently. "Your crucifix," I said to her.

She blinked in confusion, looking down at it for a moment, before her eyes widened in understanding. "O-Oh!" Her hands came up and clasped it, before she looked back at me, her eyes filled with guilt. "I'm sorry," she whispered out.

I gave her as tender a smile as I could manage after she had more or less tried to horribly murder me with snuggles twice in the space of thirty seconds. I glanced down to check if the cross was fully covered by her hand, before I pulled her to me and wrapped an arm around her, hugging her small figure to my chest. It was an awkward hug, considering we were wedged between two rows of pews, and I was far, far too big to be able to sit there comfortably.

As I sat there, my arms wrapped around Asia, I couldn't help but murmur to her. "It's… its fine, Asia. Just promise me you'll leave this place with me. I just want to be your friend and help you."

The blond nun tensed in my embrace for a moment, before she looked up at me. "R-really?" she whispered.

"Really," I said to her. "If I left knowing a cute girl like you was stuck with people like this, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Asia's cheeks tinged a pretty pink colour and her gaze averted briefly, before she shyly looked back. "Okay," she said to me in a small voice. "I'll... I'll come with you, Mr Harry."

I gently eased her off me and smiled down at her. "Just Harry," I told her. "We're friends, after all, aren't we?"

Asia stared up at me like I held the truth of the universe, and her eyes began to water again. "Y-yes, of course!" She cried out happily before reaching up and wiping away the tears before they fell.

In the background I could still hear the sounds of quick movement and weapons clashing.

"Alright," I said to her. "Then as your friend, I'm going to need you to listen to me."

The blond nun in the negligee nodded to me, her eyes determined. "Anything," she told me. "I'll do anything you say, Mr…I mean… Harry." She gave a little quiver as she said my name and smiled at me wonderfully.

It was in that moment, that I knew that I had done the right thing.

A maniacal laugh boomed through the dark church followed by the sound of rapid gun fire.

Whoops.

I'd completely forgot where we were for a second, or rather, the situation.

I peeked up above the row of the pew to find Kiba locked in combat with the person who had attempted to give punch my ticket.

There were a lot of things I could have focused on in that moment. I could have noticed the clerical robes that the man wore, or the strange grey colour of his hair. I could have even taken note of the disturbing look on his face that looked like a cross between an orgasm and an expression of utter contempt, or the manic energy that seemed to animate his body, the kind usually reserved for people who lived their lives in the same sort of coats Justin had meant for me.

I could have focused on any of that.

But Instead I found myself staring at the weapon he held in his hand that he was fending off Kiba's assault with.

It was a sword. In fact—one might have been even able to call it a saber. More importantly it was glowing with a bright white light, and I couldn't see a blade beneath said light.

One could have even hypothesized that what he held could have been called a saber made of light, or a Lightsaber if you would.

The man Kiba was fighting had a Lightsaber.

He had a Lightsaber.

A Lightsaber.

_My_ Lightsaber

Without thinking, or even considering why it was imperative that I came into possession of that sword, I stood up, my eyes locked onto the blade that was crossed with Kiba's sword. My actually mouth watered.

"You're pretty good," Kiba said, his features set in an angry look as he pushed back against the enemies holy blade, both of his hands grasped on the hilt.

The exorcist in front of him smirked and leaned in closer, pushing Kiba back his a single hand. "You're pretty great as well, for a shitty devil." His body quivered in delight and a malicious grin of glee overtook his features. "It really makes me want to blow your brains out!" The barrel of the gun that the stray exorcist held in his hand came up and he emptied it into Kiba's face

Or at least he tried. The moment he had brought his hand up, Kiba had leaped backwards out of range and somehow, in mid-air, twisted and avoided the bolts of light that exploded out of the barrel of the gun. The exorcist spun his sword around and moved to reengage Kiba.

Vssooosh.

I let out a choked sound.

It even made the noise!

It took far more effort than it should have for me to pull my thoughts away from the magnificent blade that our enemy wielded.

"Kiba," I called out his name. "We're ready to go."

"Go?" The Exorcist repeated, his face tinged with disgust as he glanced over at me. "You shitty devils aren't going anywhere, except to your death!"

He turned his gun on me and pulled the trigger.

This time, I was prepared. I lifted a hand up and held it out, drawing upon my sudden elation at my miraculously pain free body and the delight of seeing an actual light saber in action. I fed it into my hand and extended my will outward, pushing it into a shield. Unlike the one I had used to catch the force of Justin's spell, days before, this one was purely made to defend.

The bullet from the gun slammed into the invisible shield and it lit up like a Christmas tree. I half expected a bullet to fall to the ground, but to my immense surprise, nothing did. It took me a few seconds to realize—he had a blaster as well!

I was starting to seriously consider the thought that I may have joined the wrong side. Devils got superpowers, but Exorcists got Lightsabers and laser guns. My moral fortitude found itself under attack.

"Let's all put our swords away," I told him, my voice calm. The 'or else' went unsaid as I brought up my hand and with a small push of demonic power, summoned a ball of fire above my hand. "Asia's coming with me."

The Exorcist frowned and regarded me for a long moment, his crazed looking eyes became thoughtful as he regarded the fire that hovered above my hand and the tongues of flame that seemed to stretch up out of it. "…But you don't have a sword," he observed, his eyes flickering down to my hands.

I stared back at him for a long moment and I allowed the power sustaining the fire above my hand to die off.

"Can I?"

Kiba looked between the two of us as if he could not believe what he was hearing.

To my immense surprise, without another word, the sword's blade dissipated and he casually tossed the handle towards me. For a brief moment I panicked as it spun through the air but managed to catch it, only slightly fumbling it.

A grin broke out on my face as I felt the weight of the weapon in my hand. It was a lot heavier than I expected it would be and seemed to be fashioned out of a gold-bronze looking metal with a ruby embedded near the bottom. The gap where the blade came out looked hollow, and I couldn't see an obvious mechanism for summoning the blade.

"Mr Dresden, that sword won't work for you! You're a devil!" Kiba told me, sounding exasperated, thought I could hear the underlying seething anger in his voice that told me that there was nothing he would rather do, than strike down the man in front of him.

The reason he didn't, I realized, was because he had given me his sword. It wasn't the act of charity that held Kiba back, but rather the concern that the priest had something else up his sleeve and was using the action to lower his defence.

"Hey, hey now!" The Exorcist protested, turning to Kiba and giving him a wide smirk. "It's got enough juice for a little play time, what do you say, you shitty devil? Can you call out the sword and kill me with my own blade before it vanishes?" he mocked me.

I frowned and stared down at it for a moment, before I extended a will into it and searched for the source of energy that powered it. It took me a moment, but there, at the centre of the hilt I found it. There was no mistaking the holy energy that existed within the blade. Merely sensing its presence was enough to make part of me feel agitated.

The sensation of the relic within my hand was a lot similar to other focuses that Justin had shown Elaine and I, and taught us how to make. The sword in my hand was a complex item, no doubt, but it also seemed to respond to a trigger that would invoke the predetermined effect stored within it, in this case that was 'a blade of holy light'.

My eyes widened as a sudden understanding hit me, and the handle fizzles and snapped with a thrumming sound as the blade of energy erupted and formed. I couldn't hold back the gleeful look on my face as I spun the sword through the air.

Vssooosh.

"A-ah," Asia made a found from next to me. "P-please don't fight, Father Freed, please let us go in peace! I beg of you!" She clasped her hands together and looked at the stray exorcist pleadingly.

The priest leered at Asia before giving her a look of utter contempt. "Shut up, you dumb bitch. Once I finish fucking these guys I'm going to fuck you as well!"

I felt a surge of disgust and hatred flood through me with every word that the priest said. It took everything I had not to lash out at him in that moment, yet Asia didn't even flinch at his words. I couldn't help but feel envious of Asia's immaculate spirit. She was just too kind. How she managed to be able to deal with a bastard like this was beyond my capacity to understand.

I turned to the priest apparently called Freed and gave him a wide 'fuck you' grin, waving the Lightsaber at him. "Just for this—and because I don't want to disappoint Asia, I'm not going to beat you half to death," I told him, before I looked to Kiba. "Let's go," I said to him.

"H-Hey!" The Stay Exorcist shouted angrily. "What do you mean 'Let's go'? Come at me you lowlife devil bitch!"

I rolled my eyes. I raised the glowing blade of the holy weapon in my hand and pointed it at him "You don't even have a sword any more, you idiot. Do you want to die that badly?"

His blood red eyes narrowed and he glared at me, before his arm dropped down and something dropped into his palm from up his sleeve.

Vssoosh.

My eyebrows raised as I saw the sword form and him bring it up, pointing the end towards me.

"You're just set on doing this, aren't you?" I asked him, my voice flat and annoyed. My grip on the hilt in my hand tightened in response.

"Yes," he hissed out, his eyes staring at me intently. I refused to meet his eyes in that moment. I could see it written on his face as plain as day. This _thing_ in the form of a man got off on causing others pain. He was sick in the head and there was no reasoning with him.

My eyes flicker over to Kiba briefly, wordlessly asking him.

His features were set in stone, a mask as close to emotionless as he could have come, and it still wasn't enough to hide the loathing and disgust in his eyes. For the look in his eyes to be there, he must have hated this guy more than I did.

Kiba's lips twitched ever so slightly into a frown and he gave a sharp twitch of his head in the negative. "Freed is a degenerate scumbag, but he was once a prodigy exorcist of the Church, before he was excommunicated for indiscriminately killing humans as well." Kiba's lips peeled back and his bright white teeth were bared. "His skill with a sword should not be underestimated. Someone like you wouldn't stand a chance in a straight with him." The blond's shoulders shook as he held himself back from attacking. "He's the one who tried to kill Koneko tonight."

Freed burst out into a rabid laugh and pressed a hand against his chest before he spoke, his voice thick with delight and elation. "Ahhh the little devil girl! I tried to cut her and cut her but she wouldn't die! I could fall in love with a girl like that! Where is she? Is she here? Is she?" He demanded to know.

A wave of anger burned through me. This was the prick that had hurt Koneko? The memory of the line that had bisected Koneko from shoulder to hip flashed through my mind and my grip on the hilt in my hand tightened. It took everything I had not to attack him.

Freed smirked at me. "Those are some nice passionate eyes you're making. Eyes like that are the best, you know?" A quiver ran through his body and he licked his lips. "I can feel your urge of wanting to kill me. That's wonderful, I love being on the end of that feeling."

"…Koneko will be fine," Kiba said to me, keeping his eyes trained on the stray exorcist in front of us from the side. "She wouldn't want you to get hurt on her behalf."

I took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to force the anger and agitation out with the air. "Sorry, asshole. I'm going to have to take a rain cheque," I told him through gritted teeth, before giving him a nasty smile. "Thanks for the cool sword though."

"…You serious?" The excommunicated priest frowned deeply, looking disgusted with my response. His voice turned childish and he mockingly asked "How about some incentive? Fight me, or I call the hot little slut of a fallen angel on my shoulder and have her kick your asses."

His eyes widened and his body was wracked with shivers. "Oooh, that sounds good. Maybe she'll even let me piss on your asses!" He broke out into deranged cackles and licked his lips.

I felt a wave of nausea hit me. "…You meant ashes right?"

Freed's grin widened. "And maybe afterward she'll finally let me have some fun with lil' Asia over there!" he crowed.

I heard a whimper from beside me and the anger exploded back to life. "I'll fucking kill you!" I snarled and flooded my body with enough demonic power that I felt like I was going to explode.

I hit him hard and fast. Far faster than I had ever moved in my life. The force of the momentum and the sheer fury that empowered my strike drove into Freed. Somehow, he had managed to bring his blade up in time to block my strike.

But it was useless.

Because I was not stupid. I was not an idiot. I wasn't a mindless beast of rage. Before I had been made a devil I had killed a monster that made the priest in front of me look like a remedial dropout in villain school.

It was useless because, before I was a devil, I was a wizard.

"**Forzare**!" I snarled out and poured my rage and hatred of the _thing_ in front of me into my blade.

What had been comparable to a heavy blow from a mallet became a bulldozer powered by rocket fuel.

I felt his arms and knees buckle as the force of the blow overwhelmed Freed and slammed through him, sending him flying backwards with enough force to smash through the altar that had been behind him.

He let out a girlish cry of pain and hit the wall behind it and there was a loud vicious crack and a sickening crunching sound. He crumpled forwards onto the remains of the wooden lectern and mantle that had made up the altar. The wall that he had been slammed into was sporting a lovely new set of cracks across its surface.

I heard a scream of surprise and fright from Asia and a hitching of breath from Kiba as their eyes caught up to my sudden assault.

There was a protesting groan of wood being strained, before the debris beneath him broke under his weight and he fell through the floor with a mewling whimper.

I breathed heavily and clutched the sword in my hand. I heard a fizzling pop sound and I didn't have to look to know that it had died. Enchanted objects, holy or otherwise were not made to stand up to being overloaded with power.

I took a deep breath and straightened up, before tossing the remains of my lightsaber to the ground where it clattered and shattered into fragments.

"Let's… let's go, before Raynare shows up," I said after a few seconds and turned to Kiba and at his stunned look of disbelief, I gave him a weak smile. "Sufficient power can make up for lack of skill," I told him. "My old mentor hammered that into me. I suck at delicate skilled stuff."

Kiba blinked slowly. "…R-right." He shook his head and straightened up. "…We should leave before the Fallen Angels come."

"Right," I agreed, before glancing down the hole that Freed had fallen through. That bastard was still alive. If the Fallen Angels had a measure of healing that was half as effective as devils had, then human or not, he would be back if I left him as he was. That was not acceptable. "Right, that would be the smart thing to do."

Kiba regarded me with a stoic look, before he spoke. "You want to steal the sword and gun from him don't you?"

I blinked at the accusation a few times and opened my mouth to tell him otherwise, before hesitating. "…Am I that transparent?" I asked, reaching up and running my hand through my hair. I gave him a roguish grin.

"Why?" Kiba asked, his voice filled with honest curiosity.

Because Freed didn't deserve to live, and leaving him alive was a threat to Asia, to Koneko, to Kiba, to myself and any other decent human being that he would ever come across.

I looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "Dude, Star Wars."

The curiosity slowly faded from Kiba's features which formed a blank look that told me that he didn't believe me for a second. "We can go together and take care of him," he said to me, his voice calm and reasonable. "It is far safer than going down there, where who knows what lies in wait."

"Please…don't go after him."

I blinked and turned towards Asia, surprised by her sudden words. She had since walked out of the row of pews and stood near the middle of the aisle. She looked at me pleadingly, her hands clasped together in front of her nervously.

"…Why?" I asked her, holding back the anger from my voice over the thought of that _things _living another day.

"I don't want any—" she fumbled on her words for a moment. "I don't want anyone to get hurt…" she whispered out, casting her emerald gaze to the floor. "I know he's a bad person, but… the Lord teaches us that we must forgive and turn the other cheek." She looked up and gave me a kind smile.

This… this… girl, did she even realize she was talking to a Devil? I was supposed to laugh at her for saying that right? That would be the devil thing to do, right?.

Instead, I stared at her, the anger draining out of me slowly. Even a piece of filth like Freed, who threatened to rape her. She even cared about someone like that. I had no idea how to deal with that type of person, someone who cared so deeply that she didn't want even a bastard like _him_ to get hurt.

In that moment, I wanted to yell at her. To scream at her that if we didn't deal with him right then and there _more_ people would be hurt, and it would be our fault for letting him escape.

That's what I wanted to do.

But, Asia didn't deserve my anger. The one who did was down that hole. If she didn't want me to take it out on him, I couldn't justify going after him. She had more right than any to want revenge, but if she said no, I had to respect that, didn't I?

I gave Asia a tired smile.

"Alright," I said, my voice soft. "We'll do it your way Asia."

"Mr Dresden…" Kiba said quietly to my side. I could tell from the underlying tone of his voice that he thought letting Freed go was a stupid idea as much as I did.

"Kiba. Anyone who follows me to certain death can call me Harry," I said to Kiba bluntly, stopping him before he could start and offering him a quick grin.

His eyes widened a fraction, and after a moment a smile appears on his lips. "Thank you, Harry," he said to me. "Please, call me Yuuto in return."

I blinked. "…Kiba isn't your first name?"

He let out a faint laugh, shaking his head. "No, it isn't. Though, I can see where you would get that idea."

His laugh faded and he gave me a long, searching look, as if asking me _why_ we weren't going to finish Freed off. I endured, giving him a noncommittal shrug of the shoulder to which he sighed at and nodded. "Very well, Harry."

Kiba turned to Asia and gave her a charming smile as he sheathed his sword. "Miss Asia, was there anything else you had to collect before we left?"

Asia blinked owlishly as Kiba turned to address her and nodded. "Y-yes, my suitcase," she answered.

"Is it far?"

She shook her head and pointed towards the door she had come out of. "It's just down there," she told him. "I'll just be five seconds," she assured him.

As she spoke, I couldn't help but wonder where the Fallen Angels were, but asking Asia would just delay us more. "Ki—Yuuto, keep an eye out and make sure Freed doesn't find his way back up to surprise us." I turned to Asia and gave her a quick smile. "Let's go quickly."

Asia nodded quickly and scampered across the church floor to the door that lead out the back, careful to avoid the splintered lectern that had been scattered around the floor.

I followed after her, after giving Kiba a strained smile, my long strides allowing me to catch up quickly.

The hallway that the door lead on to was pretty barren as far as things went. There were discolorations on the floor and walls that told me that there had once been a long runner of carpet on the floor, and paintings on the wall.

Asia passed a few doors, before turning left and pushed open a door, slipping into the room.

I was right behind her, and ducked in a second later, only to stop mid step. I found myself staring inside in mute horror. Considering the state of the church, I wasn't quite sure what I had expected.

Whatever it was, it wasn't the tiny room that I saw before me. It could have barely been considered a storage closet with how small it was. The size wasn't really what did it for me. It was the grey mattress that had been shoved into it and was half up one of the walls, the lumpy stained pillow up one end and the dirty sheets that laid on top of it just added to the picture.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I took note of the teal scraps of cloth that had been left on the bed. She'd been wearing whatever it was as an outfit earlier in the day, but it was barely recognizable as actual clothing.

I was brought out of my stupor as I realized that Asia was humming happily as she went about, packing the few things that she had in the suitcase that I had helped her with earlier in the day.

I couldn't help but stare at the back of her head as she went about packing. How could she be so nice? How could she be so cheerful? How could she look a monster like Freed in the face and wish him all the best in life?

It made no sense to me whatsoever. I'd met a many religious people in my life, at school, around town. They'd all claimed to be devout Christians. I'd met priests who thumped their bibles and spoke the word of god as they saw fit, self-righteous men who condemned those who sinned in their eyes.

None of them were anything like this girl.

They hated, they cursed, they were cruel and capricious.

They were human and acted like it.

I hadn't quite understood why I had been so desperate to come back and save her at the time when I had left the Academy. I had put it down to her having saved me, and wanting to save her in return.

I wanted to save her that much was true. But what I had done, what I was doing.

It was suicidal. I had no doubts about that.

Even at that very moment, I was in very real danger. The hairs on the back of my neck were still on end. My body knew I was still in danger, and yet there I was, patiently waiting for the girl in front of me to pack her bag.

"I'm done!" Asia announced happily as she tugged on the handle of her suitcase and stepped backwards through the closet door, pulling it along with her.

I smiled at her after a few seconds and nodded. "Let's go, Asia," I said to her, and reached down, picking the suitcase up off the ground.

"Right!" Asia exclaimed, her eyes wide and joyful as she quickly followed me back out to the church actual.

The instant we stepped close to the doorway I felt it. Something was coming and it was dangerous and meant us harm.

We ran into a tense looking Kiba who had apparently abandoned his watch for the same concerns that I had. "We have to leave now," he said, his voice sharp and urgent. "They're almost h—"

I didn't let him finish. "Get her out of here," I hissed at him as I reached forwards and grabbed him by the arm. I pushed him through the doorway. "I'll buy us time!" I told him, my voice rushed as I stepped through the door and shut it behind me to the sounds of protest from Kiba and confusion from Asia.

As I turned from the door, I noticed a strange distortion in the air of the church, a faint warping of the air. There was a faint sound of feathers fluttering in the air for a brief moment, and before I could blink, they appeared.

Standing near the aisle were three very contrasting figures.

The first was a middle-aged looking man in a grey suit, very form fitting and definitely something of an expensive cut. He had faded grey hair that was topped with a fedora of all things—coincidentally grey as well. I felt that I didn't even have to look at his eyes to know what colour they were, yet there they were, grey and staring at me with little more than contempt.

My eyes as they passed over the next figure, couldn't help but linger upon the expansive cleavage that that was displayed for more than a few seconds, before I took in secondary details, like how there was no way in hell she was wearing a bra with how low-cut the jacket she wore was, or that the 'skirt' she wore looked like it would rip if she took a step too far, from how tight it was.

With more effort than I was willing to admit, I managed to bring my eyes up above chest level and found her face to be rather exotic. High cheek bones, long dark hair that seemed to have almost blue-highlights under the light from the moon, and almond shaped eyes with the thickest eyelashes you'd ever seen.

The third figure was the one that really caused me to pause and wonder if what I was seeing was real.

It was another girl, but unlike Miss Cleavage, she was short and blonde with a pair of sharp blue eyes. She wore a strange black maid-esque outfit with an obscene amount of frills, stockings, what looked like a garter belt, and a matching set of black ribbons in her hair and around her throat.

Oh, and she looked like she was barely out of elementary school.

"Hello," I said to them with a pleasant smile on my lips as I stepped away from the door. "How're you all doing this fine morning?"

"…Devil, what are you doing here?" Mr Grey spoke to me, his voice gruff and irritated as his gaze swept across the room, lingering briefly on the mess we had made of the altar, and the exposed staircase that descended into the ground.

"Before I answer, can I ask a question?" I asked as I stopped a few feet away from the door behind me. "You're all Grigori, right?"

"…That is correct," Mr Grey spoke, suddenly paying more attention to me.

I nodded and my eyes flickered to the young girl that stood beside him. "Okay, so just to clarify, most of you guys fell from heaven because you got horny right?"

A sudden spike of killing intent hit me from all three of them.

I held my hands up in a pacifying gesture. "Not judging," I reassured them with a smile. "I just want to know, because…" I glanced at Ms Cleavage. "For her, I can definitely see it. I mean, you're hot," I said to her honestly. Despite the situation I saw the female fallen angel give a pleased smile and arc her back ever so slightly in response, causing her already strained jacket to strain some more.

"And, I'm not gay, so I don't know, but you're reasonably good looking as well."

I got an intense frown from the male fallen. "What is your point, devil?"

I pointed at the third member. "That, is my point," I said.

"H-hey why are you pointing at me?" The young elementary school-aged fallen angel protested.

"You look far too young to have fallen because of wanting to…" My features screwed up. "I mean, who would even…?"

Her eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth at me before stomping a foot on the ground. "How dare you?!" She all but shrieked at me, her young-girl voice high pitched and deadly to my eardrums. "I have seduced many mortals!"

"…That's my point exactly," I said, wincing and bringing a hand up to my ear to ring it out. "What kind of sickos sleeps with a girl who looks like she hasn't even hit puberty yet?" I posed the question as politely as possible.

I got three responses.

A scoff of amusement from Mr Grey.

A burst of giggles from Ms Cleavage.

And a livid expression of the utmost indignation and rage from Miss Lolita.

"I'm going to kill you," The young fallen angel snarled at me, her adorable face glaring at me as if I had stolen her favourite toy. A sadistic, maniacal glint registered in her eyes for a moment. "No… No…I'm going to rape you," She stared at me intently. "Yes… I'll rape you until you change your mind." She licked her tiny lips with her tiny little tongue

I…I couldn't help but stare open mouthed at her, a sudden wave of nausea hitting me. No girl as young and cute as she looked should have ever been allowed to say those words.

What was even more terrifying, is that for a brief moment, I actually believed she would do it, and bar running, there was nothing I could do to stop her. Despite what she was, I don't think I could bring myself to hurt her for much the same reasons that her words nauseated me.

Without hesitation or thought, I decided that backpedalling was my best option.

"I apologize for my thoughtless and rude remarks," I said to her after a moment, my words heartfelt and utterly sincere, for terror of her carrying out her threat. "I'm still learning to control my tongue, and often say hurtful things without thinking about how they would affect other people."

Miss Lolita blinked slowly and stared at me, confusion overtaking the rage that had been on her delicate features. "I…uh…" She looked over at her fellow fallen angels, unsure of how to react.

Mr Grey shrugged a shoulder noncommittally while Ms Cleavage gave her a smirk as she brought a hand up and ran it through her hair, taunting the smaller girl with her utterly impressive rack. I couldn't help but follow the motion with my eyes.

Miss Lolita noticed my reaction, and her features turned livid again. "I'll rape you to death! I really will!"

"…So, to answer your earlier question," I said, changing the subject and looking at Mr Grey, avoiding looking anywhere near the young blonde. "I'm here to save Asia from you." I paused for a moment. "Technically Raynare, but she doesn't seem to be here right now."

I found myself on the receiving end of three very similar looks of surprise.

Mr Grey was the first to recover. "Is… that so?" He asked, his lips turning to a frown. He glanced around at the damaged pews, and the shattered altar, his eyes lingering on the exposed hole in the ground for a few seconds, before he looked back at me. "Where is the Stray Exorcist, Freed Sellzen?"

"I put him down," I told him, unable to hold back a vicious grin, pointing to where he had fallen through the floor. "Like the dog he was."

Mr Grey raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow in response. "That is quite impressive. Freed is a genius when it comes to exterminating devils, especially low class ones such as yourself." He regarded me for a long moment, as if looking through me. "I cannot sense any other devils hiding nearby, nor can I sense a mark on you. How curious, are you perhaps a stray devil?"

My initial response was to snap out a no and say something smart-ass to him. However, I hesitated. Rias' warning that attacking could potentially start off a war that would be catastrophic. But, if they thought I was just a rogue devil, acting on my own whims, that was another thing entirely.

"Is that a problem?" I asked lightly, offering him a grin.

"No, quite the opposite, it makes it a lot simpler. We can exterminate you without repercussions." He lifted a hand up from his side, and a blade of light appeared within his grasp.

I stiffened, and found myself tensing in preparation. I wasn't certain what he was capable of. If he was anything like Raynare, I might be able to beat him. If he had the same sort of gauntlet that she had, that allowed her to become overwhelmingly fast, that might be an issue as well.

"What? No! You can't kill him yet!" Miss Lolita exclaimed, turning towards the taller man beside her. "I said it didn't I? He's _mine_."

I found myself staring dumbly at the younger fallen angel.

"…It's a low class devil, you can find others who will make more obedient playthings." Ms Cleavage pointed out lazily as she summoned her own bladed weapon of holy energy and sliced it through the air. She winked at me and spun the weapon between her fingertips.

"No!" She stomped her foot heatedly. "I'm going to get my revenge! I will teach him the consequences of badmouthing me!"

"Wait, wait!" I lifted a hand for them to stop. "I have a solution for everyone."

The three looked at me again, all annoyed that I was interrupting them.

"I'm not willing to hit a woman," I told them honestly and pointed to Ms Cleavage and Miss Lolita. "So, If possible, I'd like to request that we settle this man to man, does that sound reasonable?"

"I hardly see how that is a solution," Miss Lolita said irritably, her blue eyes flickering to me briefly. "He's still going to kill you… uh."

"Harry," I supplied helpfully. "That's where the solution comes in, how about we make a deal?" I offered them a grin.

Mr Grey broke out into chuckles. "Clearly you are a fool if you believe you would be able to tempt I, Dohnaseek with a pitiful contract." He lifted his arm up, as if preparing to strike.

"I never said contract," I pointed out. "I said deal, as in a verbal agreement between two parties, nothing more, nothing less."

Curiosity seemed to get the better of Dohnaseek and he lowered his arm slightly. I took it as a sign to continue.

"You and me, mano-a-mano. You win? I'll submit to Miss Lolita over there and let her do whatever she wants to me."

Miss Lolita glared at me angrily. I took it to mean that she was an avid reader of Russian literature. "You dare?" she hissed out. "My name is Mittelt! I'll carve that name into your soul when you become mine!" Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides.

She stopped suddenly, and gave me an odd look, before her lips slowly curled up into an amused, superior-looking smirk. She brought her hand up to her mouth and covered it with the back of her hand as she let out a laugh. "I can see right through you, foolish devil! I can tell you _want_ to be mine!"

Mittelt, the Lolita Fallen Angel spun to Dohnasheek and glared at him. "If you ruin this for me, I'm going to make you wish you had died in the war!"

Dohnaseek's features took on an unpleasant expression and he avoided looking down at the child-like blonde beside him. Somehow I could read his expression, it said something like 'I already do'.

Dohnaseek, instead continued to look at me calculatingly. I could practically see him weighing his options in his mind. "…And if you somehow manage to defeat me?" He asked after a moment. "What would you like? If you'd like to relieve me of Mittelt exchange, I assure you we can come to some sort of agreement."

"…I'm going to make your life a living nightmare." Mittelt said to the taller man, her voice filled with an acidic loathing.

"Nothing so…" I trailed off as Mittelt spun to me, the edge of her skirt briefly lifting from the sudden twirl. "Nothing so inconsiderate for... Mittelt, was it?" I gave her a weak smile. "It's simple. I beat you, you let me go and you and yours leave me and mine alone."

"And what's to stop you simply fleeing at signs of your defeat?"

"Well, there are three of you, and just lil'ol' me in my corner. I'm certain between the three of you, you can be confident in stopping me from running," I offered. I took a moment to glance aside at Ms Cleavage. She'd been oddly silent for the majority of the conversation. "Honestly, I'm the one who should be concerned, I mean, you're fallen angels right? Doesn't sound that trustworthy to me."

That got a reaction from her. "How dare you?" she hissed out at me, her fingers wrapping tightly around the immaterial weapon in her hand. "Deception is the purview of lesser beings, such as yourself. We are above such petty things!"

"Well then," I remarked, grinning at her. "Sounds like there shouldn't be any problems." I paused and regarded Dohnaseek. "Unless that is, you think you can't beat me?"

A look of disgust crossed the grey mans features and he regarded me with contempt. "How dare you? Who do you think you are?" he demanded to know, anger rising in his voice.

I stared at him for a long moment, allowing the tension in my body to slowly ease out, and then I spoke. "Why don't you come over here and find out?"

Dark grey eyes regarded me with contempt. "I'm going to break you," Dohnaseek said to me as he stepped forwards and brought the spear of light in his hand up. "I'm going to cut off your arms and legs."

"If it's all the same to you, try to focus on killing me." I told him, smirking. "I'd rather not be left to the tender mercies of Lolita over there."

'Hey!'

I ignored the bout of rage and the stomping from the tiny fallen angel. I only had eyes for the fallen angel in front of me. "One more question."

His lips curled up in a sneer. "Be quick about it."

"How would you rate yourself, compared to Raynare?" I asked casually, and flexed my fingers briefly, before clenching them.

"In terms of ranking, she is our superior," Dohnaseek admitted freely.

"Super," I said cheerfully.

There was a long moment of stillness and silence as we stood across from each other.

I could feel the tension rising.

He'd tactfully evaded the question.

That told me one thing.

He was weaker than Raynare.

I reached deep down into the depths of my power and took a hold of as much power as I could handle, drawing it up and flooding every inch of my body with the demonic energy. It set my nerves alight and filled by body with vigor. I could feel my body pulsing, thrumming from the sheer amount of power I had pulled out and shoved into my limbs.

The act made it especially difficult to focus as I drew upon my will and focused myself.

One strike from the weapon in his hand and I would be as good as dead. If it was even half as potent as Asia's cross, that would be it for me. I'd wake up to find myself with a dog collar around my neck and giving the sexually precocious fallen angel pony rides, and _not_ the wholesome fun for the family ones.

The indignation, the nausea and disgust that the thought invoked in me. I used it. I gathered all those negative emotions and used them to fuel my magic. I poured it all into my hands, forming it into a tightly packed kinetic ball the size of a marble.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, steadying myself. When I had poured my spell into the holy blade, I had been angry and rushed and sloppy. The tiny sphere of power in my hand was taking everything I had to keep it together and then some. I could already feel my head pounding from the sheer effort required to keep it from blowing my hand off.

If I survived this I was definitely going to need to come up with an actual Foci. I had never needed one for combat before the past few days. Who knows, I might even be able to use something other than pure force once I had one.

I couldn't help but smile slightly in amusement.

Dohnaseek blinked.

The act may as well have been a gigantic sign screaming 'GO!'

I launched myself at Dohnaseek. The demonic power that raced through my veins pushed me forward in that instant. I crossed the gap between us faster than he could open his eyes, and slammed my fist into his face.

The bundle of kinetic energy inside my fist imploded and with my last bit of strength, I directed it into his face, right through my fingers. There was a sickening crunch that had as much to do with my fist hitting his face at the speed of sound, as it did with the force exploding through it and shattering my fingers.

There was a brief instance, a solitary moment where I found myself hovering there, fist planted against Dohnaseek's cheek. I could see the ripples of motion through his skin as my hand impacted.

And then the moment ended and the force of my blow, combined with the kinetic explosion that had ripped through my hand hit him.

One moment he was there, and the next moment there was a loud thundering sound following by a howl of gale force winds and a crack of a gunshot, and a rumbling of the building.

Dohnaseek, the Grey Fallen Angel, vanished, and with him, so did a large section of the south facing wall of the church.

The howling continued for a few more seconds, as the displaced air found itself suddenly catching up and filling in the void left behind from the sudden explosive ejection of Dohnaseek from the building. The large stone blocks that had made up the south wall of the church continued to fall to the ground in a pile of rubble as the structure collapsed.

"…and for my next trick," I breathed out as I slowly straightened myself up. "I'm going to make myself disappear," I informed the two remaining female fallen angels with a roguish grin.

The grin lasted for a moment, before a rush of pain erupted from my fist, slicing its way through my nervous system with a vengeance.

I clenched my teeth tightly and held in a mewling whimper as the bones in my fingers informed me, very politely that they had been very displeased with my treatment of them.

"Ladies," I managed to get out through my gritted teeth, my cheeks still set in the grin. "If you'll excuse me," I said to them and calmly began to walk away, down the aisle, past the two stunned, flabbergasted fallen angels. I quickened my step as I did, partially because I didn't want to stick around long enough for them to realize what had happened, and partially because I desperately needed to get away so I could scream in agony.

I barely made it half way to the doors of the church before I heard it.

A faint fluttering of feathers in the air.

"Where is my cute little Asia, Devil?" A calm, lovely voice that definitely did not belong to either of the two fallen angels behind me, asked, and I felt the pain in my hand fade in the place of sudden, abject terror.

—~—


	8. Chapter 8

—~—

I broke out in a cold sweat as I heard her voice.

I found myself unable to move, my feet frozen to the ground. She may as well have been holding a knife to my throat. The terror that filled me could not be put into mere words.

I had thought that I was ready to face her again. I was certain that I could beat her, yet, the memory of how hard she had hit me made my hands tremble. That moment of confusion and pain before I hit the ground over a mile away lingered and betrayed my confidence.

I took a long, deep breath and I turned around.

Raynare stood there, a few feet away in the middle of the church aisle. She had a frown upon her lips as she looked at me, her violet eyes heavy lidded and filled with a sense of annoyance.

She wore the same outfit as the last time we had met on the church grounds. The same short black dress, topped with the same small purple jacket. It wouldn't have surprised me normally, except last time I had seen her in it, it had been torn to shreds from her being punted through the church doors.

Either she had a closet full of them or she had a few magic tricks up her sleeves, however short those sleeves were.

Behind her, Mittelt and Ms Cleavage stood to the side, at the start of the aisle, both of them staring at her with wide, worried eyes.

"Where is Asia," Raynare repeated her earlier words, her voice still calm. It made my cold sweat break out into a cold sweat.

"Wouldn't have the faintest," I said to her, speaking slowly as to not trip over my words.

Violet eyes regarded me with a sense of irritation, before it vanished and a slow, steady smirk appeared on her cupid bow lips. "You know," she drawled. "When I said that you could come back and play, I hadn't expected you to be back so soon."

"You know me," I said mildly, trying to ignore the screaming in the back of my mind that was telling me to hightail it out of there. "If a girl invites me back to her place, I can't really turn her down."

Raynare's smirk never quite left her lips as she tilted her head to the side, in a way that was far too cute for someone like her to be doing. "I don't believe I do know you," she said to me, and took a step forward.

I took a step back in response.

I could tell you that it was part of my ingenious plan to get closer to the door, and closer to escaping the church. But that wouldn't have been true. It had been an instinctive reflex to keep the distance between Raynare and I at the same length. Coincidentally, with my longer stride I may have in fact put even more distance between us.

Like I said, all part of the plan.

"H-his name is H-Harry," Mittelt mumbled from behind Raynare, shuffling her feet.

Raynare's lips pressed into a thin line and she turned her head, glancing back over her shoulder at the short blonde girl. "Yes, thank you for that Mittelt." Her eyes looked over to Ms Cleavage, who stood next to her. "Kalawarner, go see if Dohnaseek is still alive."

Kalawarner, the Fallen Cleavage, gave a sharp nod and a second later, two large black feathery wings burst out of her back. She flapped her newly revealed wings rapidly, launching herself up into the air and then out of the church as if she was being chased by the devil himself…or herself… or themselves?

Becoming a Devil had put a lot of strain on my phrase usage. First I lost my ability to invoke the big G without a sudden dose of pain, now I couldn't even string together a casual thought involving Satan, because apparently there were four of them.

My hand throbbed in pain, and I found Raynare looking at me again. "Did you have to make a mess of the place?" She asked me, a frown appearing on her lips. "Normally I'd approve of destroying church property, but you do know I'm going to have to get someone to clean up this mess right?"

"To be fair," I said to her, licking my lips. "Your lackey is the ones who broke the wall," I paused for a moment before added. "With his body. It's his own fault he couldn't dodge."

A single, delicate eyebrow rose up. "Dodge what, you, or the wall?"

"Either, or both," I told her and glanced towards the large hole that I had made with Dohnaseek's assistance, debating on whether or not I'd be able to make it out.

"If you try and run, I will kill you," Raynare told me as she saw me looking.

"If you kill me, you'll never find Asia," I told her plainly.

Raynare's eyebrows rose up, and she let out a peal of mocking laughter, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. "Do you really believe that I wouldn't be able to find her? There are only two devils in this city that you could possibly be affiliated with, the Gremory heiress, or the Sitri heiress."

The laughter made my fists clench, which sent a fresh wave of agony spiking up my arm's length. I held back a grunt of pain, but couldn't help the wince that followed.

Raynare's features took on a note of interest and her eyes drifted down to my hand. The look worried me, and I felt a certain sense of danger directed towards my already wounded hand.

"Why do you even want Asia? What use could a girl like her possibly be to someone like you?" I demanded to know suddenly, trying to avert her attention.

Raynare considered me for a long moment, before she spoke. "I want to save her."

"Bullshit," I said to her instantly, scowling.

Raynare's features took on a hint of confusion at my response. "Is that so hard to believe? That I would want what is best for a pure girl such as Asia?"

"As hard as it is to believe that I believe you, I'd imagine," I remarked waspishly.

"Why?"

"Well, gee. Where to start? How about how her room here? Or that you happily let a bastard like Freed threaten to _rape_ her."

At the mention of Freed, Raynare's features took on a look of the utmost displeasure. That degenerate is a necessary evil at this stage, but I assure you, no lasting harm would have come to Asia from him, and if it did, I have no hesitation to punish him, severely."

Raynare hesitated for a moment, her eyes looking conflicted briefly, before she continued. "I'm not quite certain how Asia will feel about me telling you, but I feel that you won't understand the whole situation unless I do."

"…What are you talking about?" I asked, suddenly wary. This wasn't going at all how I had expected it to. I'd expected a villainous dialogue followed by threats of violence.

"As Asia would have told you, she is a nun," Raynare said to me. "What she probably didn't mention, is that she is actually quite famous in Europe, there she is known as 'The Holy Maiden'."

I didn't know where she was going with this, but I had a gut feeling that I was about to learn how it was, that Asia came to be associated with these Fallen Angels. Against my better judgment, I remained standing there, and listened to Raynare as she spoke.

"She became known as such, due to her miraculous ability to heal the sick and wounded."

My mind flashed back to when I had been crippled by the pain of the crucifix that Asia wore, and the strange power she had used to heal my wounds. Miraculous was a good word for it.

"One day, the Holy Maiden came upon a wounded man, and without hesitation she chose to heal him." Raynare's features tinged with an unpleasantness. "But that man was a devil, someone she shouldn't have been able to be healed by a holy maiden. I'm certain you can imagine how they reacted, can't you? Asia was cast out of the Church and branded as a heretic witch."

My stomach twisted unpleasantly. She'd healed me, a devil, without hesitation. How could she have, when that same action had ruined her life? The answer was simple, it was because she was just too kind, just too damn kind.

"Yes," Raynare murmured, watching my reaction intently. "I see you can understand why I reacted the way I did when you appeared here with Asia earlier in the day." Raynare gave a faint sigh. "She's already been put through enough pain by you wicked devils, wouldn't you say?"

I was pretty sure it was a rhetorical question, but even if it hadn't been, I wouldn't have answered, mainly because I had no idea what to say. Instead, I focused on what I did know, and that was, no matter what she said, Asia hadn't wanted to stay here. That she had been willing to leave with a 'wicked devil' spoke excessive amounts to the hospitality of the fallen angels.

None of the devils I had met, not Sona, Tsubaki, Rias, Akeno, Kiba, Koneko or hell, even Serafall who was literally satan, evoked the same level of intense agitation and immense dislike that the fallen angels had. The only one who had even come close was Akeno, and that was because there was something seriously messed up in that girls head.

I glanced behind her at Mittelt who was standing there, fidgeting behind her, her blue eyes in the back of Raynare's head, nervous and worried. For her own comrade to act that way around her, it was pretty obvious she was a bad egg. Ms Cleavage had literally fled the scene the moment she could as well.

"You still don't believe me, do you?" Raynare said quietly, a frown touching her lips again.

"Do you know how Asia is able to heal people?" she asked after a moment.

"Magic?" I offered sarcastically.

"Close," Raynare admitted honestly and lifted her right arm. Her eyes narrowed for a brief moment, and then there was a flash of red light and once more, her arm found itself clad in the red crystalline gauntlet from earlier in the day when she had whooped my ass.

My body tensed suddenly and my limbs jerked as I took a step back. My first instinct was to throw myself clear and make a break for it, but Raynare made no move to attack me. She simply smiled in amusement at my reaction.

The dark haired fallen angel turned her gaze to her arm and casually rolled it, observing the gauntlet from various angles. "Curious, isn't it?" she remarked. "This is called a Sacred Gear, it is a gift that is bestowed upon mortals by God, it allows humans to perform what they consider to be miracles."

"If it's for mortals…and why do you have one?"

"It was a parting gift from my boyfriend," Raynare answered, her lips curling up into a smile, amused at some sort of in joke, before they turned back to me. "You see, Harry—can I call you Harry?" She asked.

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Alright, Harry," she agreed, her voice holding a hint of teasing as she dropped her arm to her side. "You see, Harry, sacred gears allow mortals to perform miracles, but they are also cursed. Those who wield them are shunned by humanity."

"…So what you're saying is that Asia has one of them," I stated my thoughts plainly.

"That is right," Raynare agreed. "Her sacred gear is called Twilight Healing. It is capable of healing any wound almost instantaneously, as you yourself have no doubt experienced."

Her eyes flickered down to my chest. I didn't have to look to know she was staring at the crucifix-shaped hole in my shirt. "Human, devils, angels, fallen angels. There is nothing that is beyond its ability to heal. For us Fallen Angels, who have lost God's divine blessing, it is something truly wondrous."

The look in her eyes as she spoke could best be described as longing "Can you imagine what it would be like, to lose your entire world, everything you've ever known?"

I could in fact, relate very well.

"My crime, was that I chose to love a human," Raynare told me, whispering, her voice soft and delicate. One of her hands came up and gently clasped her elbow across her chest. She looked vulnerable and fragile. "For loving my father's creation, he cast me out of my home," she said, and then, the big bad fallen angel started to cry.

I don't mean she started wailing and sobbing. She simply started to cry. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she stared at me, her features locked in a look of deep anguish.

I couldn't help but stare at her, confusion written on my face. What was happening? Why was she crying? She was she telling me these things?

She suddenly snapped out of it, and shot a look at me as hard and cold as Antarctic ice. Even behind the glare, she looked beautiful. Her eyes were crystal clear, the beautiful violet in them shining in the sparse light that cascaded through the stained glass windows.

She started walking towards me, a resolute look set in her eyes.

I started back pedalling quickly.

Her jaw clenched and she stomped forwards even quicker, and soon enough I felt the splintered church door press against my back unpleasantly. Raynare kept walking until the swell of her chest pressed against the bottom of my rib cage, and I found myself stuck between a rock and a soft place.

My breath hitched in my throat as I stared down at the fallen angel. She was short enough that the top of her head barely came to the tip of my nose. She looked back at me, her eyes set in determination.

"W-what are you doing?" I couldn't help but stammer.

Raynare looked up to me, her eyes becoming heavy lidded, and her pupils dilating in what for a brief moment I thought was arousal. As she pressed her breasts against my chest, and I felt two hard nubs poking me through my shirt.

I corrected myself.

It _was_ arousal.

A second later she brought her arms up—including the still gauntleted one—and I panicked. I screamed at myself to push her away in my head, to get away before it was too late and she killed me. But, my body betrayed me and refused to move. As she wrapped her arms around my neck, the gauntlet on her arm felt cool against my neck, not unpleasantly so, just noticeably.

She drew my head down and licked her lips. "I told you, didn't I?" Raynare murmured as she drew closer and closer. "You're my type." Without hesitation, Raynare pushed herself up onto the tips of her toes and closed the gap between us.

Soft, delicate lips pressed against mine and I felt the world melt away as Raynare began to kiss me.

If you had asked me before now, I'd have told you that I knew a few things about kissing. Elaine and I had locked lips more times than I could count, and we'd each gotten very good at it. Raynare however, took it to an entirely new level.

It wasn't something as simple as how soft her lips were. It was how earnest it felt as she kissed me, the passion that was behind it. With Raynare's lips on mine, I had no trouble at all believing that she had fallen down from Heaven because of love.

Every fibre in my body told me that she was bad news, that she was evil, and a monster that simply looked like a human. But then, why was she a monster? Because she'd been kicked out of heaven?

Asia had been excommunicated from the church and she was _lovely_. What if Asia had been an angel? What if she'd made a mistake and had to live for a thousand years as she was now? Would she have eventually become like Raynare?

At some point, I began to kiss her back, and I heard a sound of approval from her. I brought my hands up from my side, and placed them on her waist.

And unceremoniously let out a yelp of pain into her mouth, causing her to break away in surprise.

The pain was enough to snap me out of my hormone induced stupidity, and brought up my good hand to hold her back. "S-stop," I managed to get out through the mind numbing pain.

Raynare stared at me, her eyes filled with confusion, and more than a little bit of hurt. "Why?" She asked, her voice soft.

She began to look vulnerable again, and I felt her body tremble ever so slightly. In that moment I hated myself, I hated myself for making her feel that way. I hated myself for not being able to go through with it.

"I-I have a girlfriend," I said the first thing that came to my mind and immediately felt a bang of guilt. I _did_ have a girlfriend, estranged as she was. She was half way across the world, had run away after seeing me kill our mentor, but technically we were still going out.

Raynare blinked slowly and her expression changed to something naughty. "That's alright," she told me, her tongue poking out to moisten her lips. "I have a boyfriend. If you won't tell, I won't," she breathed out and moved to kiss me again.

I turned away and her lips briefly brushed against my cheek.

"Why?" Raynare demanded to know, pulling back again, her voice filled with hurt and pain. "Am I not good enough for you?" She glared up at me, her eyes filled with indignation.

What the _fuck_ was happening?

"It's not that," I said quickly, "It's just that…I have a girlfriend." I repeated. "I'm not going to cheat on her," With a fallen angel who was potentially going to try and kill me went unsaid. I had far less deadly options available to me if I wanted to cheat.

Raynare's glare faded, and she simply stared at me for a few seconds, before she let out a breath, and her arms slipped from my neck until her hands rested on my shoulders, and she dipped her head forwards, resting her forehead against my chest.

I felt awkward, horny and embarrassed, and I had no idea what to say or do in that moment.

"…You…" Raynare murmured, my ears barely picking up the sound. I felt her body quiver slightly, and then, her hands on my shoulders tightened painfully.

I couldn't hold in the grunt of pain as the sharp, pointy fingers of her gauntleted hand pierced deep into the skin. "Hnngg!"

"You dare… turn me down…" Raynare breathed out, her voice becoming louder, and angrier with each word. She lifted her head, and glared at me. Her violet eyes were narrowed into pin pricks and I could practically feel the rage boiling over.

"I-I take it back!" I practically shouted at her. "Let's make out!" I gritted my teeth and quickly reached up to the gauntlet, grabbing at it with my good hand, and attempting to pry it off, even as it it tightened and I felt the crystalline material dig deep into the muscles.

"Do you know… how humiliating that was for me?" She snarled angrily, and her other hand reached down and grasped my other hand, squeezing tightly.

And just like that, whatever facade she had been putting up broke and I found myself faced with Raynare's true self.

Realizing that I wasn't going to get her hand off my shoulder, I drew together the scraps of my will and drew upon the agony radiating from my wounds. I brought my good hand up and pressed the palm to her face. "_Forz_—" I began to choke out, only to break off half way in a sound of protest as her fingers dug in _deeper_.

My eyes watered as the pain swept through my body. I couldn't hold myself up on my feet, and I found myself crumpling to my knees, putting my face down to below eye level for her. My hand faltered and slipped from her face, grasping onto the gauntlet again, trying to somehow pull it off my shoulder.

She had a manic smile on her face, it was forced and angry.

"Do you know how… disgusting it is?" She whispered to me, her hands tightened painfully on my shoulder and hand. "To actually taste the spit of a low class devil like yourself?" she seethed, "and to be _rejected_?"

I attempted to form words. My mouth moved, but all that came out was a semi-high pitched noise.

"I tried to be kind to you, I gave you the chance to aid me willingly," Raynare said to me, her lips parting and revealing perfectly white teeth. "But you chose the path of pain."

I couldn't help but let out a pathetic mewling laugh and grin at her, despite my sudden urge to not be conscious.

"…What's so funny?" Raynare asked me, her eyes narrowing.

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom," I told her, breaking out into inane giggles as the pain in my shoulder and hand continued to do horrible things to my ability to stay focused.

"Speak sense, boy!" Raynare snarled and shook squeezed my hand.

"Y-you cannot pass," I told her through my giggles, even as her claws dug deeper. "I am servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cann—" I grunted in pain as she clenched my shoulder and squeezed tighter, the tips of her claws scraping against the bone.

"Say another word, and I will tear your arm off," Raynare whispered to me, her voice filled with unabated anger, entirely directed at me.

Even if I wanted to continue at that point, it was fairly impossible. My jaw was clenched tight and I was seeing stars in response to the _blinding _pain.

"A-ah, M-Mistress R-Raynare," a timid voice stammered from somewhere nearby. "I-I think you're k-killing him."

"Probably, unfortunately _some_ idiots let that dumb nun escape. You take care of this mess, Mittelt."

I gritted my teeth as I felt the claws that had pierced deep into my shoulder pull out. There was brief moment of relief, followed by a sharp sting that was only half as bad. Mercifully, the hand that had been squeezing my broken one also let go, and I found myself slipping forwards to the ground.

I had expected to get a broken nose on top of everything else that had been broken, but to my surprise, a small, soft something caught me before I hit it.

"…you're dumb, stupid Harry." a young voice murmured into my ear, as small arms wrapped around my chest to keep my upright.

What little sense I had left had me shuddering as I realized exactly _who_ was holding me. I made a sound of protest in response but quickly found myself mercifully slipping away from consciousness.

Only to be brutally brought back to it moments later as the back of my head hit the cold stone of the church floor.

"Ah…whoops," Mittelt gave a shaky laugh.

I blearily opened my eyes to find the young twin-tailed fallen angel kneeling beside me. She gave me a sheepish smile and patted me on the head. "Accident," she insisted.

I stared at her for a few seconds, before mumbling the first thing that came to mind. "…Please don't rape me."

A wide smile overtook her young face, it was naughty and absolutely did not belong. She gave me a brief wink. "I like my toys to be broken in," she told me quietly, her eyes flickering down to my shoulder briefly. "…but not actually broken."

"…Is he still conscious?" Raynare's voice came from behind Mittelt.

I looked past the younger girl at the same time as she turned her head to look at the Queen Bitch herself.

Raynare stood there, a few feet away, a nasty smirk on her features. She had one hand set on her hip, and the other gauntleted hand hung by her side.

"How about it, _Harry_. Do you feel like telling me where Asia is, or should I get _creative_?"

As she stood there, waiting, I couldn't help but notice as her right hand casually began to lift up and begin to grope her breast.

Raynare's gaze became confused for a second, before she looked down to where I was looking. She flushed crimson, tore her hand away from her breast and glared at me.

It occurred to me, that I hated her. She was, in a word; the worst.

I sighed and pulled myself up into a sitting position, doing my best to ignore the overwhelming urge to throw up from the pain.

"…What are you doing?" Mittelt whispered to me, her voice filled with confusion, even as she attempted to push me back down.

"Going out with a bang, I think," I admitted honestly, giving her a smile. "It's too bad you weren't older, I think it'd have been a lot of fun to flirt with you." I told the young fallen angel.

Mittelt glared at me half-heartedly and mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" I asked her as I pulled myself up onto one foot, and then the other.

"…I said…I'm two thousand years old," Miss Lolita mumbled again.

I stared at her for a few seconds. "…Wow, you never got your growth spurt, did you?" I said flatly as with a wince, I pushed myself up onto my feet, letting out a string of curses as I did.

"What are you doing exactly?" Raynare asked me, her voice annoyed and her fists clenched at her side. "I've given you more than enough chances, boy. If you don't stay down I will put you down, _permanently_."

"Boy, boy, boy," I muttered, my voice filled with anger and rising with every uttering. Justin had always called me that, even at the end it was _boy_. Like he could never be bothered to say my name. "I fucking _hate _being called that!" I suddenly shouted at her.

Fury without bounds filled every inch of my body as I glared at the Fallen Angel in front of me. I _hated_ everything about her. I hated the way she looked, I hated her eyes, I hated her hair, I hated the way she dressed. I hated the way she somehow managed to make me _believe_ for a second that she was a decent person.

I hated everything about her.

I hated her so much that I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to hurt her so badly. I wanted her to _burn_.

My body trembled with my anger and the pain that had been visited upon it. Deep, deep down, in the depths of my heart, beyond all the pain and all the rage. I began to hear a familiar song without sounds and without words.

It was a song that filled me with warmth that soothed my aches and was balm to my pain. Heat began to build up inside my chest, and for the first time, since it had first happened, I recognized it was happening.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance, _Fallen_." I snarled.

Raynare's lips peeled back into a sneer and she raised her right hand. The massive emerald on the back of the hand of her gauntlet seemed to glow. "Do you want to try your luck again, _boy_?" Two massive black wings burst out of her back and stretched out behind her.

"**Boost."**

The fires within me burned brighter and brighter with each passing second, and I felt the pain vanish and my flesh begin to sizzle.

"W-what's happening to you?" Mittelt stammered, her eyes wide as she stared at my shoulder.

I briefly glanced down at it.

My wound was letting out steam, the flesh crackling and hissing. I couldn't help inhaled briefly. The smell of roast meat, of barbecue, filled my nose.

My stomach rumbled. I hadn't eaten since this morning. I couldn't help but lick my lips. My eyes briefly flickered to the young girl standing near me. "Get out of here, Mittelt," I told her as I cast my gaze back to Raynare. "You won't like what's about to happen."

Mittelt stared at me, her blue eyes filled with a confusing mixture of fear, astonishment and dare I say it? _Arousal_.

"Go on, Mittelt," Raynare said as she clenched her fist. "Run away while you still can. I'm going to _punish_ you severely when I get the chance for daring to even _consider_ betraying me."

Mittelt paled and she looked between the two of us. Wings burst out of her back, and without another word, she fled the scene.

"**Boost."**

I held back a flinch at the sound of the voice as it boomed through the air oppressively and all encompassing. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I exhaled and my skin began to warm up.

I felt like the sun was shining down on me.

It was a good feeling.

I opened my eyes. "Tell me, Raynare, do you believe in karma?"

Raynare regarded me with cruel eyes. "If this is your idea of pre-fight banter, you're lacking," she told me, a smirk upon her lips. "For example. 'After I'm gone with you I'm going to_ kill your family_.'

Jokes on her, my family was already dead.

I couldn't help but smile in self-depreciation. "I don't think you have it in you," I told her honestly. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you're incapable of doing it."

"**Boost."**

Raynare's features were livid with anger. "I'm going to kill you," she told me, her voice filled with hatred and absolute loathing.

I couldn't help but smile at it. It looked like we were finally on the same page emotion wise. I began to gather all my anger, all my hate of the creature before me into my hands.

Who the hell did she think she was to stand before me like she was an equal? I fed _that_ into my fire as well, my arrogance, my thoughts of superiority over the disgusting creature that stood there.

"Not a big fan of karma then?" I asked, my voice becoming calm and level as my emotions drained away into the pulsating, growing ball of fire I held within my chest.

"**Boost."**

Raynare's features became even more scornful. "You _dare_ lecture me? I who has existed since before your—"

"You suck at pre-fight banter," I cut her off, giving her a feral grin as I lifted my broken hand up. I flooded it with the fire inside me and the room was filled with a cracking and popping sound as the bones in my fingers realigned and mended as the fire melted through them.

"**Boost."**

I didn't give a thought to how I had done it. I didn't need to, I knew I could, I didn't need to know the how. The why, however was simple.

I turned the palm upon Raynare and began to pour the blistering heat inside me into my hand, spreading my fingers out so that I could see the centre of her mass between my fingers. I regarded her through my fingers for a moment.

"**Boost."**

Raynare's body seemed to take on an otherworldly quality as the sheer amount of power that had been building up inside her broke free of her restraint and began to crack the foundation beneath her. Her hair began to drift upwards, caught in an invisible, imaginary updraft that sent waves of motion through her clothes. She glared at me, her eyes glowing with an eldritch power that in any other situation, on any other day, would have me cowed.

"You're an amateur monster, Raynare," I told her, my voice came out startlingly calm and collected. Every ounce of anger, fear and righteous fury that I had was being poured into my hand.

It made me feel strangely at peace.

The sleeve along my outstretched arm began to flap and flicker as the power began to manifest physically along my arm in twisting ribbons of starlight, and before my very eyes, the white material of my shirt began to disintegrate into motes of fading light. As it did, the interior of the church began to brighten as if the day had arrived a few hours early.

"You picked a fight with someone who has fought a real monster and…" I said to her, before trailing off as I realized, "You're not worth the monologue."

"Enough!" Raynare screamed at me, her very voice sending shock waves through the church, dislodging more and more rubble and causing the very building itself to quake. "I will not stand to be mocked! I'll kill you where you stand and th—"

Raynare cut off in mid-threat and suddenly screamed so loudly that the force of it pushed me back a step. The sound was a horrible, despairing wail, and I was pretty sure it wasn't directed at me.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD PERVERT!**" **She screamed, clutching at her head and digging her fingers into her scalp. Without warning she collapsed to her knees and began to slam her head against the ground beneath her.

And pulverizedit

Confusion hit me as hard as any physical blow could have as I watched Raynare pound her head against the church floor, shaking the building to the foundations and shattering the stone to powder with the sheer force of each strike.

"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!" She screamed until her voice was hoarse and then she gave a cry of denial, shaking her head.

She flung her head up and stared into distance space as a look of pure horror appeared on her features. "N-No! D-Don't! Y-You can't!" she cried out and reached down with her gauntlet with her good hand, gripping at it and attempting to tear it free.

It didn't budge an inch.

"**Boosted Gift Transfer."**

"I won't let you!" Raynare cried out, her voice filled with the utmost fear. She brought her hand up, summoning to it a massive blade of pure light and swung it down at her arm with the full intent of cleaving it off above the gauntlet.

The bright blade of holy energy came within an inch of her arm, and then she stopped.

I don't mean she held back from cutting her arm off. I mean she stopped. She stopped breathing, she stopped moving, she stopped everything and froze, her eyes wide in terror, a perfect expression of despair.

The fire in my hand seemed to die away as my intention to incinerate Raynare vanished, and I stood there in confusion, not quite understanding what had happened to her.

And then she collapsed, like a puppet with its strings cut, her eyes rolling back in her head. She slumped forwards onto the ground, her large, dark wings blanketing her body from sight.

It was of course, at that exact moment that the wall behind me imploded, showering me with bricks, wood, glass and mortar.

"Harry, we've come to rescue you!" A voice shouted from behind me, even as the rubble rained down upon me. I couldn't stop myself from bringing an arm up and covering my face as I found myself sudden enveloped in a deluge of dust. It felt like I was practically naked with how sharp the shards of stone and splinters of wood hit me. It felt like my clothes did nothing to protect me from it.

"…Oh my," Another voice murmured from behind me.

I kept my eyes closed for a few more second as the rubble continued to shower down on me, before I dropped my arm from my face and turned around. Through the dust in the air, and the moonlight that caught upon it, I found myself face to face with a familiar set of faces.

Rias and Akeno stood there, on the other side of what had been the church doors, each clothed in their school uniform. They were each looking at me, eyebrows raised. Rias was holding her hand up, and I could see flickered of a deep dark energy, that cast a crimson light passing over her fingers. I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread from it, whatever it was.

Rias maintained that look for a few seconds, before her eyes narrowed as they swept the scene behind me, briefly catching sight of Raynare's crumpled form. The energy dispersed from her hand a moment later, and she set her hands upon her hips giving me a firm look."

"That's quite a look you have going on there, Dresden," the dark haired devil beside her murmured, giving me an amused look, her eyes roaming over my body.

At first, I had assumed she meant the various wounds I had accumulated from fighting, but as I looked down, I noticed two very important things. One, the wound on my shoulder had vanished completely, the only trace that it had ever existed was the crimson stain on the skin around it.

The other thing I noticed, was that I could clearly my entire chest, and was in fact, standing there in my underwear. I blinked once, then twice, and third time, before I looked back up at Akeno and gave her a hard look, as if daring her to say another word.

She just smiled back at me pleasantly

I looked away from her, back to Rias, and found her look having not waned. "What happened here?" Rias asked me as my attention returned to her, her voice holding a measure of surprise. "Yuuto said that there were three of them, but I can only see one."

"Well, there _were_ four," I admitted and smiled at her. "One got blown away, one flew away, one ran away, and the other… well passed away," I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at Raynare.

A sceptical look passed over Rias' lovely features for a moment, before she realized I was being utterly serious. "…To think you were capable of fighting four fallen angels at once…" The crimson haired devil murmured, her eyes widening in appreciation of the sight before her.

I blinked and for a brief moment considered correcting her, before deciding to let it go. What was the worst that could really happen?

From the shattered wall, a gentle breeze began to roll into the church, and I couldn't help but shiver at the chill that it brought.

For half a second, I was tempted to ask Akeno to magic me up some more clothes, but I didn't really feel like asking her. I was certain she'd have some smart ass thing to say to me if I did, so I bared with the chill and the awkwardness of standing there, in the ruins of a church in my underwear.

I suddenly realized that Rias, and Akeno were oddly alone. "Where's Kiba?" I asked suddenly, as a concern for the state of both Kiba and Asia filled me.

Rias frowned briefly. "He is back at the club house, watching over the nun." Her lips thinned out slightly and she gave me an intense look. "Imagine by surprise to be woken up by my Knight, and to find out that you and he had decided to attack this church in-spite of my concerns—no, even more than that, you tricked me!" She accused and stepped closer, bringing a hand up, prodding my chest in annoyance.

I resisted the urge to swap at her hand to get her to stop. "Sorry?" I offered half-heartedly, not even remotely meaning it. I had done what I thought was right and I wasn't going to hesitate to defend my actions.

Rias took a deep breath, which, coincidentally did wonderful things to her chest and exhaled, her eyes roaming over my body.

"Still, as I said, it is quite impressive," she murmured and stopped prodding me. Instead, her hand began to drift up and brushed over the dried blood on my shoulder and chest. "…What happened to you?"

A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold ran through me as Rias' soft hand slid over my skin, before gently rubbing against the five bright red blotches on my shoulder where Raynare's fingers had dug in.

I shuddered as my mind briefly replayed Raynare's brutally effective method of getting her claws into me. I blamed my hormones. "…I let her get a bit too close," I said after a moment, deciding that digression was the better part of not embarrassing myself.

"Fascinating," Akeno murmured, stepping closer and leaning in to observe the area. "To think that you'd be able to pick up how to heal yourself from experiencing it two times, and for such a miraculous result" she murmured, actually sounding impressed

"It was a spur of the moment thing," I said after a moment of surprise at the almost-praise.

"I'm not even sure how I did it," I told her as I thought back to what had happened. I hadn't cared enough to pay attention at the time, now however, I really did want to know how I had done it. It had even worked on the shattered remains of my hand. I couldn't help but absently flex my fingers. They felt pretty good to me.

"…Can you conjure me some clothes please?" I asked Akeno, finally relenting under the heavy scrutiny that I was coming under.

"Of course," Akeno said lightly, straightening up. "Though, it would behove you not to allow this set to be destroyed, would you not say?" She offered me a pleasant smile that almost reached her eyes.

I held in my retort and instead simply smiled at her and gave a very polite, very clear. "Thank you."

Akeno's eyes narrowed slightly at my response, and her smile dimmed slightly, but none the less, her hand rose up and a magic circle appeared beyond her fingers. A second later I found myself, once more, not naked.

Rias meanwhile had turned her gaze from me, and was looking behind at the mess that the church had become. She stepped forwards, passing through what had once been the doorway and walked down the aisle, carefully navigating her way over the rubble that had covered the church floor.

Akeno followed after her, giving me a brief look as she passed.

I crinkled my nose and turned back into the church, following the two of them.

The church was eerily quiet. It was unnerving, considering mere minutes before things had escalated widely beyond control. The only sounds came from outside, the faint rustling of trees and the chirping of birds that had been abruptly woken by the nights activities.

"…Her hand…" Rias murmured from down the aisle as she stopped by Raynare's prone form, stepping around the powdered remains of the stone in front of her. She crouched down and reached out, touching her fingers on the smooth metal of the gauntlet that still made up Raynare's forearm. "…A sacred gear? How could she possibly have…?"

"She said she got it from her boyfriend," I told Rias as I got closer to where she, Akeno and Raynare were.

"…that a fallen angels was capable of stealing a sacred gear…I'd heard of rumours, certainly, but to see it in person."

Rias took a deep breath and exhaled, standing up. "I can't imagine this means that Hyoudou is still alive." She shook her head and a look of sadness passed her features. "He was a deviant pervert, certainly. But even he did not deserve to be killed by a fallen angel."

"He was a pervert…?" I echoed, before I turned my gaze down to Raynare's wing-covered form, staring down at her. Her last words had been confusing and made no sense at the time. But…

"Without peer," Rias nodded seriously. "He would have long since been expelled from school, if I had not used my family's authority to keep him in the academy." She took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "I had intended to invite him to my peerage soon, once he had awakened his sacred gear, but to think it was this one, such an enormous opportunity has passed me by."

Raynare's form twitched.

I looked down at her in surprise. She was still _alive_?

Rias stiffened and brought her hand up, summoning forth that dark energy that she had shown before in the form of a large fire ball and moved to destroy the fallen angel before her.

"Wait!" I all but shouted at her.

Rias stopped an inch into the motion, and turned her gaze to me in confusion. "Why? It's a fallen angel, worse yet, one that has attacked you. I cannot let her live in good conscience." she asked.

I grimaced and tried to figure out how to best put it into words. "Something happened near the end of the fight, before she uh… collapsed, she said something about a voice in her head."

"And that should concern me why?" Rias asked, her voice filled with honest curiosity, but none the less, the bundle of dark, crimson glowing energy in her hand began to lessen.

I hesitated a moment. "Because she said it was a perverted voice," I told Rias lamely.

Her blue eyes widened a fraction and she turned back to the body on the floor once more, staring at it intently. "…that could mean anything," she murmured, her voice filled with reluctance. Despite that, the remnants of the power in her hand vanished.

"That wasn't the only thing she said," I told her, speaking quickly in case she decided to err on the side of caution. "She told the voice to get out, and then started yammering about 'how she wouldn't let it'."

"…Are you perhaps trying to say that you believed that Hyoudou's mind was taken along with the sacred gear she stole?" Akeno asked me, her eyebrows raised up in a perplexed expression. "That is quite the jump in reasoning."

"I've heard of weirder things happening," I snapped out to Akeno bluntly.

She blinked slowly and her smile widened a fraction. "Perhaps you should be a bit politer," she said. "Who knows if the clothes you wear might find your disposition to be wanting?"

I regarded her with a flat look, but said nothing, turning my attention back to the other girl.

Rias was staring down intently at Raynare's prone body, and after a moment, lowered herself again, reaching down and pushing the fallen angel's wings aside so she could get a good look at her head. She slid her fingers through the girl's long, dark fringe and scrunched her hand up, pulling her up by her hair.

It was the first time I had gotten a clear look at Raynare's face since she had gone spastic. Her forehead was swollen and had a large oozing gash on it, no doubt from slamming her head into the ground as many times as she did. Considering the force behind it, and the fact that the ground in front of her had been reduced to dust, I was surprised her head hadn't caved in.

"…You were quite brutal, Harry," Rias murmured, her voice filled with a sort of admiration mixed with concern. "Was it really necessary?" She asked, glancing up to me.

"…It wasn't me," I defended myself.

"Do you expect me to believe she did this to herself?" A single crimson eyebrow rose up in challenge.

"But she did."

"Of course she did," Rias agreed, despite the fact she obviously disagreed. "Either way, she's suffered significant head trauma. It is unlikely she'll survive in any rate."

Yet, Rias continued to hold the fallen angels head up, and was staring down intently at her.

Akeno however, was looking at Rias, her eyes wide in confusion and concern. "…Surely you're not considering it, Rias…" she murmured, glancing down at the fallen angel, her eyes filled with what could only be described as a mixture of disgust and contempt for the sight before her.

"…I am considering it," Rias answered after a moment.

I stared at the two in confusion. Considering what? She'd said it herself, Raynare had practically brained herself on the floor, and she was dying, wasn't she?

It took a few seconds for the obvious to dawn on me, and when it did, I couldn't help but blurt out. "You're going to resurrect her as a devil? Is that even possible?"

Rias gave a faint chuckle and a smile found its way on its lips. "There are few things, in the heavens, the earth and in between that we Devils are incapable of claiming as our own," she told me, her voice airy and somewhat proud.

"The only question is the price we must pay to make it ours," She murmured and gently set the comatose girl back down to the ground, before gracefully rising to her full height. She brought a hand up to her long mane and ran her fingers through it briefly. Somehow I felt like she hadn't been speaking to me.

"Akeno, please dismiss her wings for me."

"…As you wish, Buchou," Akeno said reluctantly after a moment of silence. She stepped closer to the fallen angel and passed her hand above her, draping her fingers down. Beneath them, a crimson circle of arcane symbols briefly appeared.

I watched in fascination as the large raven wings that had appeared from Raynare's back suddenly twitched and withdrew inside her body, revealing the surprising sight of dress and jacket, completely intact.

My surprise must have shown upon my face. "The wings of a devil, fallen angel and angel are not truly physical," Akeno told me.

"…Wait, we have wings?" I blurted out in surprise.

Akeno looked at me for a long moment, before suddenly, without warning, two large bat-like wings erupted out of her back. They gave a faint flap before stretching out imposingly. I couldn't help but notice how they didn't seem to be organic in nature, and looked like they were made out of pure darkness given physical form.

My mouth opened and closed a few times, as I found myself without words for the sight before me.

Apparently, Akeno liked the expression, she gave me a faint wink before the wings retracted and pulled back, vanishing and leaving the busty Japanese school girl suddenly a lot less imposing, though somehow it did not decrease the sinister vibe I got from her whenever she smiled.

Once more, I found Rias staring at me, her eyes wide and holding a mixture of amazement and amusement.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling somewhat put off by the look.

Rias blinked and shook her head, smiling as she did so. "Nothing, It's just such a startling contrast between your demeanour and your knowledge of things as basic as that." She gave a faint laugh and her smile turned warm. "We will do our best to aid you in your education, Sir Knight of the Leviathan," she said to me, her voice holding a hint of teasing.

She lifted a hand and swept it around the church, gesturing to the large mess I had made. "Certainly, you will be a terror to behold in short order, but for now, please bear with me as I add to my peerage."

Rias extended her hand over the faintly twitching form of Raynare. She closed her eyes, and her hand began to glow red.

I watched in fascination as beneath her, a magic circle came to life. The strange glyphs and symbols along the outermost breadth of the circle began to rotate rapidly and for a brief moment, I had a strange insight into what was happening. Not so much in the sense of words, or concrete theories, but the simplest understanding that came to mind was 'analyzing'.

Whatever Rias was doing, it involved looking into Raynare's body, but whatever she was searching for, I had no idea.

Rias' features were locked into a look of concentration. After a few seconds, her brow furrowed and I felt for a brief moment something inside Raynare respond to the magic that she had brought out.

Rias' hand dropped without warning and she opened her eyes, looking down at Raynare. Her eyebrows had rose to meet her hairline and were in danger of vanishing into the crimson mop of hair on her head.

"What is it, Buchou?" Akeno asked after a moment as Rias remained silent.

"Hm?" Rias blinked and looked up to Akeno. "Oh, nothing, it's just… I had not anticipated what resurrecting her would cost. But it has certainly cemented my desire to do so. Even if she does not contained a scrap of who Hyoudou was, it would be foolish to allow her to die."

The look on Akeno's face told me that she sincerely disagreed with what Rias had said, but she held her silence. The only time I'd ever seen anything close to the expression that was on her features was when she had first laid eyes on me.

She _really_ didn't like fallen angels, and if I thought about it, neither had Kiba. For that matter, I didn't either. If I was being perfectly honest, fallen angels were kinda dicks.

Rias crouched down beside Raynare's body again and rolled her over onto her back.

I couldn't help but wince at the state of Raynare's head. The skin was starting to purple and form into an ugly swollen bruise. She'd really done a number on herself when she had panicked.

Rias moved her hand over the girl's chest and twirled her finger in the air. Beneath her hand, yet another magical circle appeared, and from it, eight crimson chess pieces appeared, dropping down onto the girl's stomach. It took me a moment to identify them as pawns.

"E-eight pieces?" Akeno said, her voice filled with surprise. "For something like that…"

Rias said nothing as she rose to her full height again and extended a hand over Raynare's body and once more the crimson circle appeared, though this time it seemed to encompass both Rias and Raynare.

"I, Rias of the Gremory clan, command by my name, to you, Fallen Creature from on high; I resurrect you back to this earth as my slave, and decree that you will be reborn as a devil. You, who will be my Pawn, I grant you this new life."

There was a moment of stillness as the circle beneath them began to move, and then the eight pawns that rested upon Raynare's chest, below her bust suddenly began sinking down through the material of her clothes and into her body.

It looked absurdly strange from this angle. The last time I had seen it happen, I hadn't really been in the position to admire how surreal it was for the 'solid' chess pieces to simply sink inside a body.

Raynare's body began to glow with the same hue as the magical circle beneath her; the colour of Rias' power. I watched in utter fascination as the wounds on her forehead began to vanish. The skin began to smooth out, the bulging swelling sinking down to normal, followed quickly by the nasty purple fading away into nothingness.

I began to feel a certain change in the fallen angel before me. It was minor at first, but I began to notice a slow reduction in the tension that I felt while around her. It was minor at first, barely noticeable, but before long I felt practically unburdened.

I tensed briefly as Raynare suddenly inhaled deeply, her chest expanding at the sudden intake of air and for a brief moment I thought she had woken up. But it began obvious that it hadn't been a conscious action as she laid there, eyes still closed, the only motions coming from her the rise and fall of her chest.

"She has suffered severe injuries," Rias said after a moment, dropping her arm to her side and glancing at me pointedly, her lips quirking slightly. "It is unlikely that she will wake for some time."

"I told you," I said with a sigh. "She did it to herself."

"Of course she did," Rias agreed easily. "It is common for someone to bludgeon the ground with their head with enough force to reduce stone to powder."

I gave Rias an annoyed look. "I told you, it was the voices in her head—"

"_Of course_," Rias agreed again, cutting me off, her voice tinged with a hint of humour. "It wasn't the girl, it was the voices in her head that made her do it. It all makes sense now."

I gritted my teeth and couldn't help but glare at the pretty devil in front of me in frustration as she refused to believe what I was telling her, and started to mock me instead.

It took me a few seconds to notice that Rias' blue eyes were sparkling with amusement as she regarded me, her lips curved a delighted smile.

"You're making fun of me," I accused her dryly, folding my arms across my chest.

"Only slightly," Rias reassured me before she cast her gaze down the newly reincarnated devil on the ground. There was a certain level of wariness in her eyes.

I could understand why. She had no way to know if the girl on the ground would wake up as a fallen angel, revengeful and wrathful, or if when she did she would be changed, either by becoming friendly due to a change in perspective on account of her becoming a devil, or from a change in… occupancy?

"Harry," Rias suddenly said my name, drawing my attention to her. "Could I trouble you to carry her for me? It's unfortunate, but due to you not being a member of my peerage, I am unable to transport you through my family's magical circles, and I am very reluctant to give my seal to this girl, before she wakes up."

I blinked and glanced down at the sleeping form on the ground. Raynare looked peaceful as she laid there, her face devoid of any of the ugly emotions I had seen run across it as we had… fought wasn't the right word. I don't know what we were doing, honestly. Posturing? That sounded about right.

"Alright," I agreed after a brief moment.

"If you'd like, Buchou, I can accompany Dresden on the way back to the Academy," Akeno offered, giving the crimson haired devil a polite smile.

Rias beamed happily. "That would be excellent, a bit of company always makes a walk more pleasant. That is quite thoughtful of you, Akeno. I'll be waiting for you both back at the Academy"

Rias without another word, waved a hand in the air, and in front of her a large crimson circle appeared. It looked remarkably similar to the one that had been seared into the floor of the clubroom back at the Academy. A second later, she walked through it and vanished, leaving me alone with Akeno and the unconscious Raynare.

I couldn't help but stare at Akeno, my face devoid of emotion. I couldn't fathom why she had asked if she could walk back with me, but I doubted it was an intent that was anything pleasant or kind.

She smiled back at me serenely. "Such a lovely expression you're wearing right now, Harry," she said, her violet eyes sparkling in delight.

I couldn't help but frown slightly. I would it supremely strange that she would _choose_ to spend time with me. I had made it very clear—as did she—that we did not particularly like each other. It made me wonder what her game was.

Her eyes widened a fraction, as did her smile. "Aren't you happy that I'm accompanying you, Harry?"

"No."

"Oh my, such an uncouth reaction, are you certain, Harry?" She let out a faint chime of laughter that sounded utterly deranged to my ears, though I may have been bias.

"Yes." I said to her bluntly, avoiding the delighted look that briefly flickered on her features. I had no idea what her game was, or why she kept using my first name. Before this it was 'Dresden this' and 'Dresden that'. It was like she was trying to piss me off. In fact, that probably _was_ the game.

I turned my gaze from her before I said something inappropriate and once more looked down at the peaceful slumbering form of Raynare. I knelt down beside her, and slipped my arms under her neck and legs, before picking her up.

She felt light in my arms, fragile.

I avoided looking at her for too long, as a swell of emotions began to form in my chest, none of them comforting or easy to understand, and soon after began to walk.

"I hope you're going to be more talkative on the walk back, Harry," Akeno said to me, as she swept around the mess on the church floor to walk beside me. "It would be _dreadfully_ boring to have a one sided conversation the whole way, wouldn't you say, Harry?"

As we walked out of the church, I began to see a faint orange hue on the horizon. At some point clouds had filtered over the sky of the city and blotted the sky in shades of grey.

I took a deep breath and exhaled heavily, before beginning to make my way back to my new home.

"So," Akeno began conversationally from my side. "How _did_ a lowlife thug, such as yourself manage to survive against four fallen angels, Harry?" She asked innocently.

I took another deep breath.

_Keep walking Harry_, I told myself.

Just keep walking.

—~—


	9. Chapter 9

—~—

The walk back to the Academy wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Despite her earlier needling, Akeno was content to walk in silence for the majority of the trip back.

When the dark haired devil had decided to talk to me, she had asked a few questions, such as how I had managed to beat the fallen angels, and how I had managed to heal the wounds on my body. Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to answer either to her satisfaction. Apparently 'I hit them really hard' and 'because magic' weren't good enough answers, because she soon stopped talking again.

It was actually quite peaceful, trudging my way back to the Academy, despite having carried an unconscious girl the whole way. To my surprise—though it shouldn't have been—I found myself completely at ease with the burden. My arms never once got even close to sore or tired. I knew that becoming a devil had enhanced my body somewhat, but it was still a novel experience.

The sun had begun its climb above the horizon and the sky was dyed in fiery hues of red, orange and yellow.

There was a gentle breeze as well, it was cool to the skin and a bit too crisp at times, but it was nice.

Every so often, I found myself glancing down at the girl in my arms. I had very mixed feelings about her.

On one hand, Raynare had been unspeakable cruel and callous, and if I had never laid eyes on He Who Walks Behind, I would have, without hesitation called her evil. She'd done a wonderful job mind-fucking me near the end as well. I still wasn't certain if she had been acting or not, when she had come onto me and kissed me. The warmth of her lips against mine was something that was hard to forget.

She was also pretty, though that didn't seem to be much of a commodity where I was. Practically every girl I had met over the past day had been in some way or another, stunningly attractive. That didn't lessen the effect it had on me, though. You never quite dismiss it when a pretty girl kisses you, even if she is a monster inside.

But was she even a monster inside anymore? Was she even her? I'd made the argument that she wasn't, that the boy she had stolen the sacred gear from had piggybacked over when he had died, but that was a whole other barrel of worms that I didn't want to think about.

Those were the thoughts I found passing through my mind as I walked through the city streets on the way to my temporary housing at the Academy.

The time went by quickly, and soon enough, I found myself walking down the path that lead through the school grounds to the old dormitory where Rias' made her home base.

Akeno slipped ahead of me and opened the door, stepping inside and holding it for me.

"Thanks," I said to her as I turned sideways and carefully crossed inside, careful not to slam the girl I was carrying against the door frame.

The lobby area of the dormitory was empty, the windows shut, and the candles lit.

I followed Akeno as she made her way up the staircase, vaguely wondering whether or not I should feel bad for looking up her skirt. "Not" won out, under the argument that, if they didn't want me to look, they shouldn't have made the things so damn short to begin with. For the record, the dark-haired girl was nearly as pleasant to watch from behind as she was from the front.

"Enjoying the view?" Akeno remarked, not even bothering to glance down at me to confirm I was looking.

"I was until your personality got in the way," I said back to her without missing a beat. I stared extra hard at her black-panty-clad-ass in retribution for a few seconds, before realizing how childish it was and stopping as we reached the top of the stairs.

We made our way down the hallway and once again, Akeno opened the door for me. I stepped inside, mumbling my thanks under my breath as I did so.

Once more, I found myself in the Occult Research Clubroom. Three figures were sitting on the couches in the middle of the room. Rias, Asia and Kiba were all sitting there, the devils on one couch and Asia by her lonesome on the other.

The blonde nun looked up as the door had opened and I found myself catching her gaze, and watching as her green eyes widened in recognition. "Harry!" Asia cried out in relief, and practically leapt up off the couch she was sitting on.

I couldn't help but smile in relief at the sight of Asia as she leapt up, still dressed in the white negligee she had worn when I had seen her last.

She made it a half a dozen steps towards me, before her eyes fell upon the body I held in my arms and she stopped. She froze in place and her hands flew up to her necklace, clasping it in fear. Asia's eyes flickered up to my face, confused and frightened by the sight of the former fallen angel in my arms.

"She's unconscious," I explained to her, before frowning and looking to Rias. Hadn't she told Asia anything about what had happened?

The crimson haired devil in question had remained seated and was daintily drinking from a tea cup, her eyes closed as she did so. A moment later she lowered her cup to the tiny saucer she held in her other hand and opened her eyes, glancing towards me with a faintly amused smile on her lips. "Harry, Akeno," she greeted us both politely and set her cup and saucer down on the table in front of her. "I'm relieved to see you both made it back without trouble."

Akeno, who had been beside me, gave a faint chiming laugh. "It was a lovely morning walk, I should definitely do them more often, I feel invigorated," she said to Rias, her voice light and airy.

Rias laughed softly as she rose to her feet and approached Akeno and I. She stopped a few feet in front and turned her gaze down to the unconscious figure in my arms. She had a strange expression on her features. It wasn't a look I could readily identify—I was seeing a lot more of those these days.

The blue eyed devil's lips curved up faintly into a faint smile and she brought her hand up, gently stroking her fingertips along Raynare's cheek. "Fate is such a curious thing," Rias said softly, under her breath.

A moment later she lifted her fingertips up and pressed a single digit against Raynare's forehead. I felt a brief movement of energy, and for a brief second a glyph appeared on the dark haired girl's forehead, before vanishing.

I gave Rias a questioning look to which she smiled and explained. "It's a little glyph that will keep her asleep for the immediate future," she told me. "In a few hours school will begin and I would prefer her not to wake up by herself."

My eyebrows rose up sceptically. "You're still going to school after all that?"

Rias gave me an affronted look, as if she was offended that I would even ask. "Of course, I could hardly consider myself to be a splendid student if I allowed my responsibilities to interfere with my school life."

I stared at her for a long moment. Just what I needed, a conscientious devil. I couldn't help but let out a soft laugh. "Whatever works for you," I told her. "Is there a spare bedroom I can drop her off in? I'm feeling kinda tired, so I think I'm going to hit the hay for real this time."

Rias raised an eyebrow. "Bed? I don't think so, Harry. You also have school today, your first day," she reminded me.

I…I stared at her for a long moment in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"I am quite serious," Rias told me, her expression becoming firm and almost authoritarian. "Classes start in two hours and you'll be expected to attend them in addition to doing a tour of the facilities. Sona and Tsubaki should be here shortly to accompany you."

"But, I was up all night," I pointed out dumbly.

"Whose fault is that?" Rias asked lightly, giving me an amused smile.

I frowned and didn't respond, instead I used my impressive intellect and thinking abilities to come up with a reason _why_ I wouldn't be able to attend school.

"I don't have a uniform yet," I pointed out to her quickly. "It seems rather inappropriate to actually attend the school if I can't follow the dress code, right? It seems like such a…" I trailed off as I found Rias' smile widening in amusement.

"It's been taken care of," Rias told me, her hand coming up to stifle a laugh. "You're not that afraid of your first day, are you, Harry? You've fought Fallen Angels, this should be simple by comparison." I knew intellectually that she was teasing me, but I couldn't help but rise to the bait.

"I told you," I said defensively. "I'm _tired_. It has nothing to do with fear or anything like that."

Rias nodded in obviously false sympathy.

"Besides," I said suddenly. "I'm not leaving Asia alone. She's been through too much in the past day, I don't want to leave her alone when she's vulnerable in a new place—"

"—That's fine," Rias interrupted me. "I'm happy for her to start school today as well. Unlike you, she's a more readily available size."

Asia, who had been awkwardly standing in the middle of the room, unsure what to do with herself, reacted like she had been shocked. "S-school, m-me?" she stammered, her eyes widening in confusion and shock. "Can I?" she whispered out, her expression filling with something like a sense of longing at the prospect. "With Harry as well?" She asked shyly, glancing at me briefly.

"Of course," Rias said easily, turning toward the blonde nun and smiling, her expression pleased with the nun's reaction. "In fact, if you'd like I can also arrange for you to stay with him in his new place once it is ready."

"R-really?" Asia's eyes were wide. The fingers around her crucifix slipped slightly, brushing over the smooth silver of it and fiddling with it absently.

I could not make heads or tails of what was going on between them, but, if I had a free hand I would have covered my face with it in embarrassment on Asia's behalf.

Suddenly, Rias' expression changed into one of deliberation. "Though, I'm not certain how appropriate it is," she admitted reluctantly.

For a brief moment I felt relief at the common sense that she finally exhibited. No matter how you looked at it, even though I had gone to rescue Asia without a second thought from her predicament, we were honestly strangers to each other.

It'd have been beyond strange to have her live with me for that simple reason.

"After all, you're a Holy Maiden in service to the Church, and he is a Knight of one of the Four Great Satan's. It would be a scandalous affair, the stuff of soap operas," Rias remarked lightly.

"Oh my," Akeno uttered from beside me, her hand coming up to her lips and touching upon them lightly, as if scandalized. "Could it be a forbidden romance?" she whispered in delight.

I resisted the urge to look at her in disbelief, and instead, for the umpteenth time, I found myself staring at the back of Rias' head in stark shock, my face flushing, despite myself.

_That_ was why it was inappropriate? Not because we barely knew each other, were the same age, and would be without adult supervision?

There was something seriously messed up in her head if she thought for even one second that _that_ was the main reason it shouldn't happen. But then, from the very start I knew Rias hadn't been quite normal, hadn't I?

My shock faded, and I felt an odd moment of introspectiveness as I realized that 'normal' wasn't quite the word I had wanted to use, and that I had self-censored for the sake of my own mental health.

The proper word wasn't 'normal' at all. It was 'human'. Rias wasn't quite human. She was after all, a devil. In fact, everyone in the room we were in but Asia was a devil. It was hard to keep that in mind most of the time.

The blonde nun's eyes had widened in shock as Rias casually revealed my apparent station. "H-Harry is..?" Asia's eyes flickered over to me, wide and shocked. She swallowed and cast her eyes down to the ground briefly before her fists clenched at her side.

"M-Miss Gremory," Asia said suddenly, looking up to Rias, her gaze almost fierce.

"I…I am no longer associated with the Church," she told Rias. "I…" she took a deep breath and steeled her nerves before she continued. "I… was excommunicated a few weeks ago," Asia said, her voice going quiet as she did. "That was why I was with…her," her eyes briefly flickered over to the former fallen angel in my arms.

"Well then," Rias began, her lips curved up into a smile as she regarded Asia. "I can't imagine that will be too much of an issue then. What do you say, Asia? Would you like to go to school with Harry?"

"Yes! More than anything!" Asia agreed instantly, her eyes wide with hope and excitement at the prospect.

I probably should have been delighted at the prospect of Asia sticking around. I'd assumed, in the back of my mind that once I had saved her, that would be that. She'd have no reason to stick around without the fallen angels keeping her here.

That she earnestly wanted to stay, and because of me was something that should have made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

But instead, I found myself staring blankly at the back of Rias' head. I had no idea what her game was at all. There was no possible way that she knew about Asia's sacred gear. Kiba had been busy fighting off Freed when she had used it to save me, and he and her had fled before Raynare came along with her villainous dialogue.

Her actions made no sense to me, but somehow I couldn't imagine she was doing what she was through the goodness of her heart.

"Is something wrong, Harry?" Rias asked, turning back to me, her lips set in a cheerful smile.

"No," I said after a moment and shook my head. "No, everything is fine."

She must have noticed how unsettled I was. After a brief moment her smile became a bit softer. "If you have some concerns I will entertain them at lunch, does that sound reasonable?" She offered.

We stood there for a few seconds, staring at each other. Or rather, her staring at my eyes and me focusing on the bridge of her nose. "I think I will take you up on that," I said to her quietly.

She continued to stare at me for a few more seconds, her blue eyes focused on mine and almost challenging me to match their gaze.

For the briefest moment I was tempted to, for multiple reasons. I wanted to see if she, a pure-blood devil, actually had a soul. I wanted to see what that soul was like. I wanted to unsettle her and burn into her mind something she would never forget, to show her how foolish it was to challenge me, a wizard.

But deep down, in places that I didn't acknowledge, I wanted to know, more than anything, if I still had a soul. Bob had said I had, but what did he know? He was just a talking skull.

"Is something wrong?" Asia asked timidly from behind Rias, her voice suddenly unsure and worried. "Is me going to school with you a bad thing, Harry?" She fidgeted with her cross some more.

Rias' gaze held firmly against mine for a few more seconds, before it softened and she gave me a small inclination of the head in acknowledgement, conceding to me for that moment.

I gave her a brief, tight smile before turning to Asia and offering her a warm, genuine one. "Nothing at all," I told her. "I'd love for you to come to school with me on my first day."

The tension in Asia's shoulders vanished and a look of pure relief flooded onto her angelic features before she bestowed me with a radiant smile that seemed to brighten the room for the briefest moment.

It took me a great effort to keep from matching that warm gaze, but I somehow found it in me not to scar the innocent girl with whatever grisly mess my soul had become.

I turned back to Rias and shifted the girl in my arms. "So, what did you want me to do with her?"

"Put her in my bed room," Rias told me. "The seal will ensure that she stays asleep until it is removed, so there shouldn't be a problem." She turned to Asia, a smile visiting her features again. "Why don't you go get changed in my room," she said to Asia. "That way when you go for your uniform you won't be walking around school in your pyjamas?"

Asia blinked owlishly. "Oh!" she exclaimed, looking down at herself and flushing slightly. "O-Of course!" she agreed quickly and scampered over to her suitcase, picking it up with both her hands and dragging it toward me.

"Harry will show you the way," Rias told Asia with a pleased smile before glancing over to Kiba, who had been content to remain seated on the lounge and listen to the conversation from the sidelines. "Yuuto, would you please open the doors for Harry?"

Kiba rose to his feet. "Of course, Buchou. It would be my pleasure," he said before making his way over to us. He graced me with a smile and opened the door. "It's good to see that you're alright, Harry," he said as he opened the door behind me.

I couldn't help but smile back at him as I stepped through the doorway. Kiba was a good guy. I had thought the opposite when I'd first laid eyes on him, but he had proved me wrong in the best possible way.

He'd forced his way along on my reckless adventure to save Asia and had taught me enough to actually manage to pull it off in the time it took to get there. He'd risked his neck for a girl he'd never met just because I had wanted to save her.

I had been able to tell once we'd gotten there that his statement of 'hating' fallen angels and exorcists had been as close to the honest truth as possible, and yet, when push came to shove, he'd put it aside and taken Asia to safety.

Admittedly, I hadn't given him much choice and had practically slammed a door in his face, but he'd done so. He'd trusted that I'd be able to handle myself and he hadn't hesitated to bring Asia right back here.

More than that he'd called in the cavalry. I can't imagine what Rias' reaction had been when Kiba had woken her up and told her what we had done, but from the faint pink hand print on his cheek I'd noticed as he got closer, I couldn't imagine it had been a pleasant one.

We stepped out into the hallway, Asia following behind, carrying her suitcase with her. The moment the door shut behind us, I let out a long breath and turned to Kiba, smiling at him with all the appreciation that I could muster.

"Thank you, Kiba," I said to him, pausing for a moment, before correcting myself. "No. Thank you, Yuuto."

Kiba's eyebrows rose up in surprise at my suddenly expressed gratitude.

"For everything you've done tonight," I explained to him, turning to face him fully. It took me a moment to find the words for _why_ I was so grateful for everything he had done. "For helping me learn how to use my… strength as a knight. For protecting Asia and I from Freed while I was wounded, for taking her to safety, for telling Rias what had happened, for everything." I took a deep breath and exhaled, before smiling at him again. "If you ever need anything, anything at all, just tell me. Alright?"

Kiba looked like a deer caught in the headlights in the wake of my sudden apology and… his cheeks flushed a pink to match the hand print on them. It took him a moment to recompose himself before he returned the smile. "You're welcome, Harry," he said to me, his voice warm.

Beside us, Asia shuffled briefly before speaking up. "Thank you both," she said to us quietly. "For… everything." She looked up at me, her bright green eyes filled with earnest gratitude

I couldn't help but smile back down at Asia. If I had a free hand I would have ruffled her hair. "If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself," I told Asia, meaning every word of it. The thought of her having been trapped there, with the fallen angels, it would have kept me up at night.

Now more than ever. I hadn't known what they had intended to do with the pretty young nun before. I had just assumed they were up to no good, and that Asia had somehow fallen in with them.

It took me a while on the walk home, but I finally understood what Raynare had intended from the very beginning. She had stolen the boys Sacred Gear—Hyoudou, as Rias had called him. There had been no doubt in my mind that she had intended to do the same to Asia.

"Shall we?" Kiba offered politely from the side, and I realized that Asia and I had been staring at each other.

"Right," I averted my eyes quickly and turned back toward the hallway, continuing on quickly, walking ahead of the two blonds so they couldn't see the faint tinge of pink that my face had taken on.

I reached Rias' room quickly thanks to my long strides, and had to wait for Kiba and Asia to catch up, but thankfully I managed to get my brief moment of awkwardness out of my system.

Kiba gave me a bemused smile as he and Asia got closer.

I shrugged a shoulder in response before looking pointedly at the door.

He let out a faint laugh, but none the less moved toward the door and opened it, pushing it open.

I gave him a quick smile before slipping inside the room. It was exactly as I had left it a few hours earlier, minus a naked Rias and with the sheets well mussed. My own backpack with Bob stashed inside was sitting by the desk where I had left it as well.

I moved to the side of the bed and leaned forward, lowering the girl in my arms down onto the bed. I briefly toyed with just leaving her like that, but after a moment I reached down to the sheets and tugged them up over her, covering her with them.

I found myself staring at Raynare's peaceful features for a brief moment, and couldn't help but wonder who would be looking out of those eyes when she woke up next.

"Are you staying in this bedroom as well, Harry?" Asia asked shyly from the other side of the bed, somewhere near the desk.

I looked up to find her looking between the bed and where my bag had been stashed to the side, a hint of concern evident in her eyes.

I nodded. "I've been crashing here over the past few nights," I answered honestly. "Rias has been pretty cool about it, if insistent." I stood up and stepped away from the bed, moving toward the door. "I'll be outside the door," I told her. "Call me if you need anything."

Asia looked over at me, before her eyes briefly flickered to Raynare's still form on the bed She bid down on her bottom lip and looked back at me.

"Right outside the door," I reassured her.

She nodded slowly and watched me as I left.

I closed the door, leaving an inch or two gap open, just in case.

I turned to Kiba to find him leaning against the wall opposite the door, waiting patiently. "What happened after we left?" he asked me quietly. "Buchou gave me the nun and I some basic details, but she was succinct."

"Turns out that there were three other fallen angels working with Raynare," I told him honestly. "They were stupid enough to agree to let one of them fight me one on one." I snorted as I remembered the looks on their faces when I had broke my fist on the male fallen angels face and sent him flying.

I decided in that moment, to tell Kiba everything. He deserved to know what had happened. I spent the next minute while we waited for Asia, filling him in on the down and dirty, leaving out certain bits, such as the lolita rapist fallen angel and my indiscretion with Raynare.

By the time I had gotten to the end of the story, minus sordid details, the door to Rias' room opened, and Asia stepped out, clad in a plain blue sundress. "I'm ready," she said, her hands fidgeting at her waist, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in the clothes she wore.

"You look pretty, Asia," I said to her, complimenting her on her dress. One of the many things Elaine had taught me, was if a girl stood in front of you after getting changed without saying anything, she expected you to be the one to tell her how drop dead gorgeous she looked.

Asia flushed slightly and gave me a warm wholesome smile, clasping her hands together at her waist.

"Very pretty," Kiba agreed easily, offering Asia a kind smile. He gestured toward the hallway. "Shall we?" he suggested.

I obliged and made my way back to the club room along with Asia, Kiba leading the charge.

As we crossed the top of the staircase, to my surprise, the door to the dormitory opened, and another familiar duo appeared.

Sona Sitri, the violet eyed younger sister to Serafall—my own absentee master—and student president stepped into the building. She looked as strict and unflappable as ever in her the academy uniform, with her short hair and her red, oval-framed glasses.

She was followed close behind by Tsubaki, the vice president of the student council, who was, in many ways similar to Sona. Tsubaki had a strict personality, wore glasses—though hers were half-rectangle shaped and blue—and had long dark hair, the same shade as Sona's.

The similarities ended there between the two of them. Sona had softer features than Tsubaki, whose chin was a tad sharper. Tsubaki was also taller and… more mature than Sona physically.

"Good morning, President," Kiba said politely to the pair, drawing their attention up the staircase to where we were on the second floor.

"Good morning, Kiba," Sona said back, her eyes flickering from him to me, "Good morning, Harry." Her eyes briefly glanced toward Asia who stood between us, but she did not acknowledge her.

Instead, a severe frown overtook her lips and her eyes narrowed as they turned back to me. I could practically feel the temperature in the room drop from the icy look I got from her.

Without another word, she slowly began to make her way up the stairs, Tsubaki close behind. Somehow, through the entire way up, her eyes never left my face. It made me want to hide behind Kiba, or heck, even Asia. She stopped a few feet in front of us, and continued to look up at me.

"Good morning, Sona," I said pleasantly to her, a smile fixed on my features. "You're looking awfully lovely today, did you do something with your hair?"

Tsubaki, who stood behind her looked troubled as her eyes flickered between Asia and I. "…You didn't, did you, Harry?"

A brief moment of anger clouded over my features. "You're damn right I did!" I snapped out and folded my arms across my chest.

Sona's lips pressed into a thin line, but she didn't say another word to me. Instead, she turned to Asia and regarded the blonde nun with a measuring look. It took me a few seconds to notice, but Asia was even shorter than Sona was and Tsubaki practically dwarfed her in size.

"G-Good evening," Asia stammered as she was suddenly confronted by Sona's stern visage.

"Good morning," Sona replied, her voice calm and collected. "You must be Asia. How do you do?"

Asia blinked slowly, as she realized that the girl in front of her new her name. "I-I'm well," she answered, smiling nervously at the taller girl. "How are you?"

"I am well thank you." Sona's gaze slipped back to me, staring silently for a few moments. "Is Rias awake?"

"She is," Kiba politely interjected, drawing Sona's attention to him. I made a mental note to thank him later. Kiba lifted a hand and gestured toward the club room. "She's waiting for you, Miss President."

"Thank you, Kiba," Sona said politely, turning away and following Kiba as he walked toward the club room.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and let my arms slip down off my chest. Only to notice a second later, that Tsubaki wasn't following Sona, and instead was regarding me, her amber eyes filled with something akin to annoyance.

"Did you really go to the church?" She asked, her voice filled with curiosity.

"I did." I answered honestly and stared back at her, challenging her to say something about it. She matched my gaze for a few moments in silence.

"…I am glad that you are alright," She finally said, before turning and following after Sona.

An unpleasant sensation settled in my stomach and I grimaced as the fiery indignation that had filled me was replaced with shame and embarrassment over my reaction.

Tsubaki, like Sona was the straight-faced type. I knew that from the moment I had met them. It may have only been a bit more than a day, but I should have known better. Just because she didn't wear her emotions on her sleeve didn't mean she didn't care.

She'd gone out of her way for me in the past and my response to that was to throw my weight around belligerently and act self-righteous in the face of her concern.

I felt like an asshole, heck, scratch that. I _was_ an asshole.

Asia stood by my side, blinking in confusion over what had transpired. "…They seem nice," she said after a moment, smiling at me uncertainly.

"Yeah, they're nice," I said after a brief moment of self-loathing. I made a mental note to make it up to Tsubaki, and at least apologize to her. "Come on Asia, time to face the music."

Asia blinked in confusion, and I realized she may have taken what I had said literally. "Not actual music," I explained to her, a smile briefly tugging at my lips, before I began to walk and she fell in step with me.

I opened the door to the clubroom and stepped inside with Asia to find Sona and Rias speaking with each other. "Is that really wise, Rias?" Sona asked, her voice as collected as ever, though her brow was furrowed slightly.

"Time will tell," Rias said to Sona. "In the short term however, I can see no harm coming of it."

Both Rias and Sona turned their gaze toward me as I entered the room. Sona's expression was complicated as usual, and Rias' was smiling openly.

"We were just discussing you, Harry," Rias said to me before her eyes briefly moved to Asia, her smile brightening slightly. "And Asia of course, Sona said she would be delighted to make the arrangements for your enrolment."

Asia's eyes widened in delight and she gave a beaming smile to the student president. "Thank you very much!" she exclaimed.

"…You are welcome," Sona said after a moment, her lips twitching into a ghost of a smile. "I would never deny the chance to learn to someone who earnestly seeks it." She looked to me. "Harry, we will be leaving in a few moments to pick up your uniforms," she explained. "Tsubaki will be accompanying you prior to the lessons beginning for today, and I will be taking care of the paperwork to ensure Asia is enrolled correctly."

I nodded slowly, a brief frown slipping onto my lips as I did. The way she spoke made it sound like she was taking care of _all_ the administrative issues regarding our enrolment. Wasn't that an adult's job? Someone actually employed by the academy for administration duties?

The confusion must have shown on my face.

"Is something the matter, Harry?" Sona questioned me.

"No, not exactly." I answered and shook my head. "Just a bit tired, that's all."

A faint trace of amusement appeared in Sona's eyes. "Yes, that can happen from time to time when you stay up all night," she informed me plainly. "In the future please be more considerate to your body and take the appropriate amount of rest before a school day."

I stared at Sona blankly before I let out a faint laugh and shook my head. "…I have nothing to say to that," I told her honestly. "I don't suppose I could convince you to let me start school tomorrow?"

Sona turned to face me front on, her eyes narrowed and her lips compressed into a thin line. I got the inexplicable feeling that she would drag me kicking and screaming to every class, despite me being able to bench press her.

"Going to take that as a no," I said after a brief moment. "Can I at least get some coffee?"

"I will see what I can do," Sona said after a moment of contemplation. She turned back to Rias. "I will see you later on, Rias. Please keep me up to date with how your efforts fair."

"I'll have you prepare a second set of paperwork, if you wouldn't mind too much, Sona." Rias replied, her lips set into a smile before she looked over to me. "Come back during lunch time, alright, Harry?" she requested. "I'll have more details for your and Asia's future accommodation by then."

I wanted to ask if she was actually being serious, but decided against it. I could tell she was being entirely genuine. It perplexed me to no end.

Sona made her way across the room to where I stood and Tsubaki quickly joined her. "Shall we, Harry?"

It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that she was waiting for me to open the door for her. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and did so, holding it open as the two student council members stepped out of the room, Asia in tow.

"Lunchtime," Rias called out to me as I closed the door behind me.

She hadn't needed to. Aside from the two devils leading Asia and I, she and her 'peerage' were really the only people that I knew in the entire school, and Sona had made it clear that she hadn't wanted to spend too much time around me, despite the assistance she was offering.

As we walked and made our way out of the old school dormitory that had been converted into Rias' own personal club house, I couldn't help but glance aside at Asia. She had a bounce in her step, and was smiling happily despite the circumstances she found herself in.

She, like Rias, perplexed me. I couldn't fathom how she was so happy. She, a nun, was literally surrounded by devils on all sides, and had happily agreed to go to school with said devils, and even live with one of them. I couldn't make sense of her at all.

I couldn't make sense of any of this. I desperately wanted to run away from it all and lock myself in a room. I was still tempted to do so. Rias' bed, despite currently playing host to a certain person, seemed like a better idea than 'going to school'.

It was with that in mind, that half an hour later I found myself in front of a mirror, decked out in my newly tailored school uniform in front of a full length body mirror. When I say full length, I meant for a student of average height.

All the same, I looked… good.

Like really good.

I had a bit of a five o'clock shadow, but that was to be expected after going a few days without shaving. My hair was a bit of a mess as well, though it could easily pass of as 'stylishly mussed' if push came to shove.

I couldn't help but stare at my reflection. Justin hadn't had many mirrors in his house. He had explained that creatures from the Nevernever could use them as portals into the house, and thus having any at all was a large danger and security risk.

The outfit I wore consisted of black slacks, brown dress shoes, a long-sleeved button-downed pinstripe shirt as well as a black blazer. Each item felt like it had been custom made to suit me, and it felt _amazing_. I looked _amazing_.

I'd never had clothes that fit me to a perfect T before. They were too expensive to get tailored. They were always a bit too baggy or a bit too tight, but this. This was amazing.

"You clean up rather well, after a shave and a shower you might even be presentable." Tsubaki said to me from a few feet away, her arms folded across her chest as she patiently waited for me to finish checking myself out. "Why don't you finish putting the rest of the uniform on?" she suggested lightly.

I cast a glance at the black ribbon that I had tossed aside onto a nearby chair. "I'm not wearing that around my neck," I told her, leaving no room for discussion. "Give me a tie I'll wear it, hell, even a bow tie, but I'm not wearing _that_." I pointed at the lone ribbon, emphasising my point.

Tsubaki's lips quirked faintly. "I will pass your complaints on to the President," she told me. "However, in the meanwhile, if you'd like we can do a quick tour of the facilities?" she offered.

"What more is there to see?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've basically seen everything, haven't I?"

"There is also the assembly hall, gymnasium, tennis courts, training hall and other allocated sports areas, in addition to the various clubs," Tsubaki answered.

My stomach gave a faint rumble and I gave her a sheepish grin. "I don't suppose there is a cafeteria?"

"There is," Tsubaki acknowledged with a thoughtful nod. "However, it is still early morning so it is not open. She brought a hand up and absently ran her fingers through her long hair, flicking it over her shoulder. "Due to your assault on the church, I am to assume that you have not had dinner, or breakfast?"

"Or lunch," I added. "I'm famished. Kicking fallen angel ass makes a guy hungry, you know?"

"I do not know," the bespectacled vice president admitted, before frowning briefly. "It is very unorthodox, however, due to your unique circumstances, I do not suppose it would be too much trouble to retrieve some small items of food for you, prior to the start of the classes."

The curtains to a changing room a few meters away ruffled briefly, before Asia stepped out, clad in her own swanky new uniform. Unlike me, Asia's own proportions were close enough to your average Japanese girl that they hadn't needed to get one specifically tailored for her.

"How do I look?" Asia asked me shyly, for the second time in as many hours. She reached down and ran her hands over the corset that made up part of her uniform, smoothing out a wrinkle or two as she did.

"As lovely as ever," I told Asia honestly, offering her an encouraging smile.

She beamed at me happily.

It made me want to reach over and ruffle her hair. According to the paperwork Sona had her quickly fill out, Asia was a few months younger than me, but if you looked at the two of us it was like comparing night and day. Every time I saw that earnest look on her features, it made me think of her as an adorable little sister type.

"Are you hungry as well?" I asked Asia. "Tsubaki is going to take me to get something to eat before classes, did you want to come?"

As if queued by some miraculous fateful timing, Asia's stomach gave a faint squeak of a rumble to her dismay.

"Enough said, right?" I said to her with a cheeky grin. The look of mortification was well worth the pouting glare she gave me afterwards.

True to her word, Tsubaki eventually did manage to find us some fruit to eat before our first official class. It hadn't been much, but it'd been enough to quell my stomach and keep me from passing out while standing.

Say what you would about her, Tsubaki put the hard yards in when it came to her role as vice president. The last half an hour before home room was a veritable whirlwind of introductions and information dumping that left my head spinning and by the end of it I found myself standing in front of a class room of apprehensive looks and wide eyed amazement at both my height and apparent fluency in the Japanese language.

It shouldn't have surprised me that Sona, and or Rias had arranged for us to be in the same class on such short notice, but somehow it still did.

As opposed to the gawking I received for my introduction, Asia may as well have received a standing ovation. Her timid English and her cherubic looks apparently went over well with the boys and girls in our new class.

If I was a lesser man I may have been jealous. As it was, the moment the class ended, I watched in fascination and a bit of envy as Asia was suddenly swamped by her fellow students. She looked overwhelmed, but at the same time there was an elation on her face that made me feel the warm fuzzies.

"We meet again, Bigboy Yankee."

I knew that voice.

I turned my head to find a vaguely familiar pig-tailed girl standing beside my desk. She gave me a grin as I looked at her.

"You," I said, my voice semi-incredulous. I'd recognized a few of the faces in the classroom when I'd stepped in, yet somehow I had skipped her entirely. I got over my surprise quick enough. "You're too late," I told her. "I'm already sitting down, my ass is safe from you."

She blinked slowly, confusion briefly hitting her, before a lecherous smile took over her lips. "Chairs cannot save you from me," she declared, reaching up and adjusting her large oval glasses with a teasing smirk. "However, since you are new, I shall be merciful to you," she informed me, offering me a cheery smile. "Do you and the new girl know each other?"

"You could say that," I said to her, not giving away any details straight up. I couldn't help but be wary of her. Something about her seemed off to me, or rather strange. Not devil-strange, but definitely strange. "What's your name?"

"Aika," she introduced herself to me happily. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Yankeeboy."

"You can call me Harry, you know." I said to her patiently.

Her response was to continue to smile and wink at me, before turning away and going over to join the crowd that had formed around Asia.

She may have been the first to approach me, but she certainly wasn't the last. By the time lunch had arrived I'd trudged my way through a few different subjects, following a roster that Tsubaki had given Asia and I and been visited by more strange students.

A duo named Matsuda and Motohama, approached me on the sly. I recognized the former as the 'photographer' that Rias and Akeno had mentioned as one of 'Hyoudou's friends—or Issei, as his name actually was. To my disbelief and disgust, I found out that they, like 'Issei' were gigantic deviants and had immediately offered me a porno magazine as incentive to be their friend.

It took a lot of self-control not to simply stand up and walk away at that point. I managed a polite refusal and they quickly decided that I was not 'enlightened' enough to hang out with them. Getting ditched never felt so refreshing.

The more students that introduced themselves to me, the more I realized that Japanese names were hard.

I could barely make sense of which was their actual first name and which wasn't, especially because of the strange habit that they had of referring to some by their first name and others by their surname. The reasoning behind when it was appropriate eluded me, but it did become clear to me quite quickly that if I called a girl by her first name they thought I was getting fresh.

Unlike Asia, who received a bit of leeway due to her lack of Japanese skills, due to my apparent perfect grasp of the language, I wasn't given a free pass for messing up the social etiquette.

As much as it galled me, it looked like I would actually need Akeno's help with the Japanese customs if I didn't want to offend half the student body.

It was with that thought in mind that I found myself walking along the path that lead to the Occult Research Clubhouse with Asia at my side talking to me animatedly about how exciting the classes had been, and how everyone was _so_ nice.

A part of me felt jealous of her quick rise to popularity, another part pointed out that I really didn't care deep down if people liked me, and that I had better things to do with my time than make friends.

I had a _lot_ of things that I had to do. More than I could count if I was being perfectly honest with myself. I don't think I would have been able to forgive myself if I wasted time on pointless things like making friends.

Besides, it seemed like Asia was doing enough of that for the both of us. "Aika was really interested in you as well, Harry!" Asia told me happily. "She was asking if we were friends and how long we'd known each other and all sorts of things!"

"What'd you tell her?" I asked, my voice filled with honest curiosity and amusement.

Asia's expression briefly became troubled. "I told her the truth," she said to me. "She acted very oddly when she found out that even though we met yesterday that I would be staying with you from now on. I can't imagine why though, I told her that you were really, really nice!" She smiled brightly at me.

I found myself at a loss for words. "…Who knows? She seems a bit strange to me," I finally said, my features schooled into a straight expression. I was unable to tell if she was being serious or not, but even with only knowing her for a hand full of hours, I knew she had a naive, brutally genuine and honest personality, so it was likely she was being entirely truthful.

This was totally going to end well.

We entered the clubroom to find that everyone else in Rias' peerage had already arrived. Akeno, Kiba and even Koneko—who looked none the worse for wear and was nibbling on some sort of candy bar on the couches.

"You're late," Rias said as we entered from where she sat behind her desk. "Lunch started ten minutes ago."

"And we fought through ten minutes worth of students to get here." I said back to her. I would technically have been here a lot sooner, but Asia hadn't quite been willing to let me leave without her.

A faint laugh came from the crimson haired devil. "Being a new student is very rough, I understand." She stopped for a moment and regarded me, her eyes roaming up over my body and taking in my appearance. "You look very nice, Harry." Her lips slowly forming into a faint smile before her gaze transferred to Asia. "And you look absolutely stunning, Asia!" Rias told the young girl beside me, her voice filled with enthusiasm.

"Thank you!" Asia beamed happily at the devil in front of us.

Rias gave the blonde nun an affectionate smile, before her gaze turned back to me. "I've yet to awaken our new friend," she told me, her arms folding across her chest slightly. "I've decided that it will be just you and I in the room when I do."

"How about just you and someone who wasn't actively trying to murder her when she passed out?" I suggested helpfully.

"I considered that," Rias admitted. "However, I feel a familiar face—albeit one that was trying to murder her—would be best in this situation. I would definitely feel a lot more comfortable having someone who has a proven track record at handling her at my side."

For a moment I felt a sort of warm, fuzzy feeling at the confidence she seemed to have in me. Reality set in right after and I found myself suddenly wary. As far as Raynare was concerned, I may as well have been painted red and had a gigantic bullseye on my face.

My concerns must have shown. A moment later Rias stood up from behind her desk and crossed the distance between us. "Please, Harry." She said to me quietly, her big blue eyes looking at me imploringly.

I averted my eyes and did my best to endure the instinctive urge to please such a cute girl. I'd only known her for a few days, but I knew enough to know that she was the type to play dirty. She wasn't above pulling out all the stops to get her way. It was likely that she had mastered of the fabled wobbling lower lip and unshed tears as well.

Her lips began to shift into a soft pout.

I couldn't help but let out a long sigh of defeat, to which Rias reacted by suddenly shifting gears from 'saddened that her puppy ran away' to 'beaming happily in triumph'.

"Excellent!" She said, giving a hum of approval a moment later. The crimson haired devil turned to Asia next to me. "Asia, you must be hungry, why don't you let Akeno serve you some tea and snacks," she suggested. "I'll be back with Harry very shortly."

She reached over and clasped my hand, slipping behind me and forcing me to aboutface to avoid her pulling my arm out of its socket. Rias pushed opened the doors to the clubroom and stepped out into the hallway, pulling me along right behind her.

I couldn't help but let her drag me along. I was far too stunned with the sudden giddiness that she seemed to be filled with. There was a spring in her step that caused fascinating things to happen to her shirt and skirt. I wouldn't have been surprised if she burst out into song.

"You're excited," I remarked dryly, quickening my pace to keep up so she wasn't pulling me along. Despite having far longer legs than Rias, I found it a mild effort to keep up with her.

Rias abruptly stopped her bouncing charge and glanced back at me, a brief look of embarrassment crossing her features before her fingers slipped from mine. "Yes, well." She took it in stride and smiled at me. "It is a rare occasion that I add someone to my peerage," she said. "Should I not be excited for a new addition to it?"

"It doesn't worry you at all that there is a fifty fifty chance that you're about to wake up a former fallen angel who is likely to be very, very pissed?" I asked Rias sceptically, unable to comprehend what was going through her pretty little head.

Rias tilted her head to the side and a thoughtful look crossed over her features. "From what you've told me, it's more of an eighty twenty chance," she confided in me.

My brow furrowed. "In whose favour?"

A shrug of the shoulder was my answer. "Does it matter?"

I was silent for a moment as we walked and I shook my head in disbelief. "You'd think it would, but apparently no."

Rias gave me a cheeky grin and winked. Her excitement would have probably been infectious if I hadn't just gotten finished with a showdown with the girl we were about to wake up.

She stopped in front of her room and opened the door, slipping inside with me in tow.

Raynare's body had not moved an inch since I had tucked her in a few hours earlier in the day. The expression on her delicate features was as peaceful as it had ever been.

Rias swept over to the bedside and I could practically feel the warmth of the smile that blossomed on her features as she knelt down to put herself eye level with Raynare. Rias' hand rose up and gently brushed over the girls cheek and I felt oddly out of place as I stood at the foot of the bed.

A sudden thought occurred to me. I'd never seen someone sleep as perfectly still as Raynare was. "Rias, out of curiosity, you said you put her to sleep before, but… isn't that more like a coma?"

"I wouldn't know," Rias answered after a few seconds, her voice level and utterly unconvincing.

I stared down at her.

She was very purposefully in avoiding looking anywhere even remotely close to where I was standing. "It may be a tiny coma," she admitted reluctantly. "Very harmless."

"A harmless coma," I stated aloud. "For the record, I'd prefer to avoid comas in the future, however small or harmless they may be."

"If you keep up this up, you won't be able to avoid one in the near future," Rias said back to me, her lips curving up into a tiny little threatening smile.

"Duly noted."

Rias turned her gaze back to the peaceful comatose girl on the bed and brought her hand up to the girl's forehead, pressing two digits against it. I felt a subtle shift in energies and what could only be described as a metaphysical event akin to glass breaking.

Raynare's features scrunched up unpleasantly, as if she was in a brief moment of pain, only for, a second later, her features to smooth out again. I could see her eyes moving beneath her eyelids rapidly and then, they stilled.

I clenched my fists at my side and the knuckles popped. I wasn't sure what was about to happen, but at the slightest signs of hostility I was prepared to crush her like a bug. It took a conscious effort to not build up power in preparation of the upcoming smiting.

But, despite my paranoia and nerves, I watched in fascination as the girls eyes slowly fluttered open.

She laid there motionless, staring up at the canopy of Rias' bed. Her violet eyes seemed to be out of focus at first. She blinked a few times and they suddenly seemed more alert.

Rias, who was still beside her was watching in rapt attention, practically holding her breath as she watched the girl awake from her slumber.

"Ah…" The girl on the bed made a soft sound, and began to move. She turned her head to the side, only to find Rias there. She blinked her violet eyes a few times, confusion evident in them. "Gremory…?" she mumbled, her voice lilting and lovely as ever.

"Good morning," Rias murmured, her voice filled to the brim with as much affection as the smile she wore upon her lips.

I felt the power inside me dwindle and die away as it began to realize that it wouldn't be used. I had no idea what I was seeing. For a brief moment I considered that this wasn't actually Raynare, and that, whatever had happened in the church hadn't ended well for her.

But by the same token, I couldn't seem to part with the nervousness I felt. There was always the chance that she was faking it, that this was all part of some ruse to get us to let our guard down.

The girl looked at Rias for a few more moments, before blinking and frowning. "What's going on…" she murmured and shook her head before she pushed her arms down against the bed and propped herself up.

Rias smiled tenderly at the girl in front of her. "I know it must be very disorientating," she began to say, only to trail off as it became obvious that the girl wasn't listening.

She swayed slightly as if off balance and her eyebrows furrowed. She glanced down at herself and there was a moment of confusion in those eyes, before they widened and she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Her hands flew to the sheet that covered her and tore it off, revealing her body clad in the black dress and purple jacket she wore. If possible, her eyes widened further and her lips parted in a sudden gasp. "B-B-Boobs!" She exclaimed.

I couldn't help but stare wide eyed. I had been prepared for a lot of things. I'd been prepared for her to attack me without warning and blast me through a half dozen walls. I'd been prepared for her to wake up in confusion and for Rias to explain what had happened.

I had not…been prepared for her hands to fly to her breasts and for her to begin to practically maul them. I definitely hadn't been prepared for the sudden coo of pleasure she gave as she began to grope herself.

"I-I'm a girl!" she exclaimed loudly, her voice high pitched and squeaky and dispersed with gasps of pleasure as she continued to squeeze and knead the large breasts on her chest.

I found myself locked in place, jaw dropped and unable to look away as the girl before me played with herself and quickly found myself becoming extremely uncomfortable. I glanced at Rias, to find her with a deeply conflicted look on her features as she watched the girl in front of her…explore?

"W-wait…If I have breasts then…" Not-Raynare murmured, her hands briefly abating from their kneading and groping. A lone hand began to slip down the front of her body and dip beneath the sheets.

There was nothing for a moment, before her eyes widened suddenly in surprise, followed by horror. "W-where's m-m-m-m—"

"—penis?" I offered. "Trouser snake? Schlong? Salami? Pleasure pole?"

Rias gave me a look that actually made me pause.

Not-Raynare blinked and nodded slowly. There was a brief moment of stillness about her features, before suddenly, without warning, a veritable cascade of emotions ran over her features.

Disbelief, anger, anguish, grief and then despair, all in the span of a few seconds.

"I-I don't understand," she stammered, her eyes wide and filled with confusion. "W-what happened to me?!" she demanded to know, her eyes flying to Rias, and then over to me.

Recognition flared in her eyes, her hand flew into the air, and she pointed at me. "Y-you! I know you! You're the one that I kissed!"

Alarms went off in my head. "_You_ kissed?" I repeated.

"Kissed?" Rias repeated, her head snapping around toward me and giving me a very hard look.

"I-I mean she kissed!" The girl practically yelped out, her face flushing a pretty pink colour. "Yuuma…" she began, only to trail off, "I…I mean… Raynare," she said after a few seconds, her voice distant and confused.

"She…she killed me?" she whispered to herself, her voice filled with doubt, as if she didn't understand what she was saying, or more likely, remembering.

Again, I found myself at loss for words.

This really wasn't Raynare. This was actually the guy she killed. Hyoudou? No, his name was Issei. This was the poor sap that had the unfortunate privilege of meeting that deranged bitch, her 'boyfriend'.

Issei began to hyperventilate and panic. "I-I'm dead! She killed me, b-b-but I'm alive? I remember seeing myself die!" she cried out and began to shake.

"What's going on? W-who are you?!" She demanded to know, looking to me, her eyes suddenly awash with tears. She glared at me angrily, demanding that I tell her what had happened to her.

"My poor servant…" Rias whispered softly, her voice filled with very real anguish at the plight of the girl before her. Without another word, her arms came up and wrapped around Issei's head, drawing the girls face down to her chest and embracing her.

To my great surprise, the boy-turned-dead-turned-girl immediately seemed to relax and practically melted into the embrace, all tension and resistance leaving them without warning.

"Sssh, it's going to be alright," Rias murmured into the top of Issei's head, gently nuzzling down against the top of the girls head. "I'm going to take care of you, my lovely servant."

I stood there awkwardly, staring at Rias as she gently held the other girl in a kind embrace, her face nestled between Rias' clothes-covered breasts. I couldn't say I envied Issei for what he'd been through, but I wasn't above admitting that I envied him for where he was right then.

I would have liked to say that the day went quickly after that, but it didn't. The moment the lunch bell rang, school marched on. Rias wouldn't have had it any other way. A whisper of a word and a gentle nudge of power and 'Issei' was once again asleep, or—comatose, as it were.

The day seemed to go on and on, until finally school ended and I was freed from the nightmare of the school system. But even then, the day hadn't ended. Night came, and I had fully expected to be able to find a bed and pass out in it.

Unfortunately, due to Issei's appearance, Rias had been unable to keep to her promise of providing alternative accommodation for Asia and I. Instead, miraculously, another three bedrooms that were furnished to accommodate us had become available.

On another day, in another place, with someone else, I may have been pissed that I had been lied to. But then again, I had gotten sleep in bed with a naked devil for the past two nights. There wasn't much to complain about.

It was there, sitting on the floor in my temporary room, by my lonesome that I found myself. In front of me was a circle that I had drawn on the floor with some chalk that I had stolen during the last class of the day.

Inside it was a used chapstick that I had found in a side pocket of my bag. To be specific, it was one of Elaine's that she had dumped in my bag so she didn't have to carry it. This particular one was watermelon flavoured.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I drew deeply upon my will and began to block out my senses one by one.

The scent of the dust in the air, and unused sheets was the first to go.

The faint sounds of my own breathing and gentle rhythm of the heart in my chest were the next to follow.

The dull orange glow from the ever present candles in the building found itself fading to black and soon enough, even the faint taste of the chocolate I had stolen from Koneko earlier in the day vanished from my tastebuds.

I focused deeper and deeper on emptying out all the distractions until there was nothing left except an empty void.

From the nothingness a figure began to form.

Elaine.

My Elaine.

She was my first. My first kiss. My first base. My first soul gaze. My first everything.

I had told Rias that Elaine had been the only person I had ever soul gazed. What I had left out, was that it had happened moments before we had made love for the first time.

That memory of Elaine would never fade from my mind. I could see it even then. The faint blush upon her face that spread down to the top of her chest as she sat in front of me, naked, nervous and utterly beautiful. In that moment of I had seen everything that she was, and everything that she would become.

That had been over a year ago, but the memory was as clear in my mind as though it had just happened.

She had changed since that moment, but fundamentally she was still the same girl. She had more pain in her, more wisdom, more passion.

I latched onto the image and stretched my mind out into the circle before me.

Most tracing and tracking spells were subtle in nature. You didn't usually want your target to know you were looking for them. In some ways it limited what you could do with it.

What I was doing wasn't subtle by any means. It was the magical equivalent of throwing a tin can phone half way across the planet and hoping it found its way. There was an ocean between Elaine and I.

I took a deep breath and gathered my will together. I reached down and pressed my finger down against the edge of the circle. I focused on the ever perfect memory of her before we made love and pushed it out into the circle along with my will, imbuing the physical traces of the chapstick with it.

The energy was slow to build up, but soon enough I could feel it racing around inside the enclosed circle, faster and faster, demanding to be set free.

But it wasn't enough. It needed more.

Everything and the kitchen sink was going to be working against me. That was why I needed to dig deep and use everything I had with me and in me that was linked to her.

When I had died and Serafall had resurrected me from the brink, she'd asked for my name with a capital N. Names were a big deal. If you had someone's Name you could do anything to them.

You could even reach half way around the world and touch them.

"Elaine Lilian Mallory," I breathed out her name and as I did, I broke the chalk circle with my finger.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as the energy contained within the circle erupted out and mixed with the words I spoke. It twisted in upon itself and with a violent reaction it snapped like a wire going taut.

I held my breath, not daring to breathe. I could hear the blood pounding through my head, but I kept my eyes closed, focused on that immaculate image of Elaine in my mind.

If I hadn't had it on good authority that there was a God and he apparently hated me, I would have prayed for it to work.

I could feel the energy as it reached out beyond distances that my mind was able to comprehend, feeling out in the world for Elaine. There was a sudden stillness among the energy and I found myself stilled.

The image of Elaine in my mind suddenly became a bit more animated, and even bore a smile for a moment.

There was silence and I felt the resistance of the energy waver briefly. I could practically imagine it knocking on her door and waiting for an answer, and then without reason, or warning, the spell abruptly ended.

My eyes snapped open, and I found myself sitting there on the floor in the candlelit room, unable to process what had happened. My senses returned in full swing, and I briefly found myself being overwhelmed by it all. My features scrunched up and I shut my eyes tightly, bringing a hand to my face and clutching it as a sudden pounding pain formed inside my head.

I held my head in silence, for how long I don't know.

By the time that I was able to make sense of what had happened, I found myself feeling numb and empty, and unable to make sense of what had happened.

The spell had connected. I had, for the briefest of moments, seen Elaine in my mind. Not the memory, no, I could actually see her. The look of surprise on her features at my attempt to contact her, and then, it had ended for no reason at all.

To keep with the metaphor, the string had been cut and the tin can had been thrown into the trash.

I stared down at the chapstick on the floor in front of me.

She'd been… smiling. Wherever she had been, she had been smiling.

I bit down on my bottom lip and did my best not to physically react to what I had seen. Instead, I took a moment to allow myself to calm down.

Elaine had been smiling. She had looked happy. She looked healthy. She looked fine.

She hadn't ended the spell, I would have known if she did. It would have been like slamming a door in my face, but that wasn't what had happened. I didn't know if it was because of the distance, or other factors, such as the ocean itself, or the sun rising back home, but it hadn't been Elaine.

To my surprise, after a few seconds I found myself smiling. It took a bit longer to realize why. Elaine was alive. She was fine. It wasn't what I had wanted to use the spell to find out, but it was more than I had before.

An immense weight seemed to slowly lift itself off my shoulders and I couldn't help but let out a soft laugh.

Elaine was alive, and she was fine.

What that meant for us, I didn't know. Did she still want to be my girlfriend? Did she want to see me? Did she still love me? I had no answers for those questions. But, for the first time since I had come home to find my life turned upside down, I felt that I could actually focus on what was in front of me.

—~—

**Thus ends the first 'Arc' of the story, it was an interesting ride to say for sure. When I went into this story I had no real idea where I wanted to take it and basically just went with the flow for a lot of things. It turned out quite well in my opinion, and well enough that it inspired a story from GB, that I enjoy reading when he posts.**

**This actually began as an exercise for me to see if I was able to keep up a constant rate of writing of a minimum of 2k words per day. Here are some statistics that you probably won't care too much about, but that I found interesting from the first arc:**

**Days:** 41  
**Chapters:** 9  
**Total Words:** 101,317  
**Avg *WpD(41):** 2,471  
**Avg **WpD(37****):** 2,738  
**Avg ***WpM:** 20.59

*****Words per Day Including missed days  
******Words per Day excluding missed days  
*******Words per Minute on average of 2 hours writing per day

**I was fairly proud of myself for the effort and I hope that everyone who has been following along has enjoyed the journey thus far. Barring unfortunate circumstance, it'll continue for a while yet, look forward to the future chapters! I already have the next few chapters written and ready to be posted as usual every week. I've actually had a large backlog of chapters that I've been posting as you can probably tell from the statistics!  
**

**I'd like to thank everyone who has taken time to leave a review, they're genuinely appreciated and I find them very encouraging on the days when I have to force myself to keep writing, even if I'd rather not. A big thanks to Gabriel Blessing for mentioning the story in his first post of 'Beyond the Outer Gates Lies'. If you haven't had a chance to read it, I suggest that you do. His take on the crossover is very refreshing and lighthearted and spearheads far ahead timeline wise for DxD.**

**Finally, a giant thanks to the DarkLordPotter members who've taken time to leave constructive criticism, corrections and general betaing.**

**Warmest Regards,**

**Jon  
**(_Surarrin_)


	10. Chapter 10

—~—

"What do you mean we've reached the limit?" I demanded to know.

"No, I said we've reached the limit of what we can do without better quality materials." Bob said back to me patiently. "If you'd just call your sugar daddy and get some money we'd be done by now and you'd have an even better foci."

I couldn't help but glare at the inanimate skull. "I told you to stop calling her that."

The pinpricks of orange light in the empty sockets of the skull rolled. "I'm just calling it as I see it. You're basically her bitch anyway. That's what you get for dying in the first place. It could be worse, she's pretty cute."

I took a deep breath before exhaling, sitting back in my seat and folding my arms across my chest. I refused to be dragged into that conversation again.

It'd been two weeks since I had died at the hands of the monster that Justin had sent to kill me, and twelve days since I'd taken on a Fallen Angel to save a Holy Maiden. Life had gone a lot smoother after those two days, thankfully.

I let out a faint sigh and shook my head. "We'll get back to it later Bob," I told the skull that sat on my bedroom table. "I have school in an hour. I can't be late or I'll never hear the end of it."

"You should just sleep with her already," The skull insisted.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." I said to Bob as I began to pack away the various tools and materials in front of me.

"You just responded." Bob pointed out dryly. "That right there was a response."

I rolled my eyes and picked up the storage box I had shoved everything into and slipped it under my bed. I stood up and stretched for a moment, working out the kinks in my muscles.

Making the magic happen took a lot of effort, and a lot of sitting in one place for a few hours. It was a killer on the back.

As I stretched, I took a moment to admire my room. It wasn't anything fancy by anyone's measure, but it had begun to take shape. I'd begun to buy bits and piece from the allowance that I had begun to receive from Serafall.

The thought of that strange devil girl brought a smile to my lips. Our meeting wasn't the stuff of fairy tales—or maybe it was? It was pretty surreal no matter how you looked at it. But, the day after I had been dropped off she had appeared again and begun to spend some time with me, in between the time she spent harassing her sister.

She was actually a pretty nice girl, after you got over the whole 'literally Satan' part.

I'd found myself confiding in her a lot when she popped around. I felt oddly at ease when talking to her. I told her about Justin, Elaine, about my mother dying in child birth, my father dying when I was five. I told her what it was like growing up and learning magic. I told her about my love of Star Wars, and how distraught I had been when I broke the Lightsaber I'd stolen from Freed after it had all ended.

I couldn't help but give a faint chuckle at the memory of how she reacted when I told her what had happened with Asia and Raynare. I had thought Sona and Rias had been over reacting when they said she was liable to attack the Fallen Angels if she heard they had done something.

They had been entirely serious, and it was only due to quick thinking on my part, and exaggerating how much of a beat down I had laid on them, that she relented, deciding that I, her servant had dished out enough punishment on her behalf.

She apparently liked the thought of punching someone hard enough that their body broke the sound barrier and had vowed to re-enact the feat.

As I thought about her, I found my eyes being drawn to the pride and joy of my room. There, on the wall opposite my bed, framed and mounted, was an original limited edition, mint condition, signed, Star Wars: A New Hope movie poster.

And when I say signed, I didn't just mean Mark Hamill.

I meant _everyone_.

I'd almost broken down right then and there when Serafall had shown up with it and asked her to marry me. She'd already gotten her hooks into my soul, I hadn't known what else to offer at that point other than my undying love.

"Harry," Bob called out to me from my desk. "You're doing the staring thing again. It's creepy."

I snapped out of my stupor and shot Bob a dirty look. "You wouldn't understand." I told him as I stepped over to my closet. I pulled out one of my academy blazers and slipped it on.

It still marvelled me, weeks later at how perfectly everything fit me. I was only slightly ashamed to admit that I had avoided buying other clothes, simply because of how comfortable they all were.

There was a gentle knock on the door and a soft, muffled voice came through it. "Harry, are you awake yet?"

"It's open," I called back through the door as I adjusted the cuffs of my blazer.

The door opened and a blonde head of hair peeked in with a bright smile. "Good morning!" Asia chirped happily.

"Mornin' Asia," I greeted her back with a warm smile.

Rias, true to her promise to Asia, had arranged things so she could live with me.

Asia had changed a lot over the last two weeks. I didn't mean physically, she looked the same as the day I met her. The same soft angelic features, long blonde hair, and eyes that sparkled with an inner glow.

What changed was how she acted. She'd been timid before, and at times she fell back into the same behaviour when confronted with something unexpected, but…she seemed genuinely happy now, and a lot more open.

I hadn't noticed it when I first met her, but she had forced herself to smile no matter how she felt at the time. It had been a coping mechanism for her, one she sorely needed when confronted with being excommunicated from the Church.

I grimaced. "Is breakfast ready?" I asked Asia as I walked over to her, picking up my bag from the end of my bed as I went.

Asia nodded with a smile. "Yes, are you hungry this morning? " She blinked. "Oh! I was told to tell you that you're not allowed to skip breakfast this morning!" Asia told me, giving me a reproachful look. "She was very insistent, Harry. I think you're hurting her feelings by constantly avoiding it," Asia confided in me.

"What she serves is not breakfast," I told Asia flatly and stepped out of my room, shutting the door behind me. "Toast is breakfast, cereal is breakfast. Pancakes are breakfast. _That_ is not breakfast," I said vehemently.

Asia blinked owlishly at my sudden outburst and tilted her head. "But… it's a traditional Japanese breakfast," she said after a moment. "Isn't it appropriate since we're in japan?"

I stared at Asia, feeling betrayed. "But…it's fish and beans…" I uttered dejectedly as we walked through the hallway, before shutting up as we reached the kitchen and lounge room.

"Good Morning, Harry," A cool, calm, collected voice said to me from dining room table.

"Good Morning… Sona," I said with a forced smile on my lips.

There, at the head of the table, Sona, the younger sister of Serafall, my 'devil master' sat. She was already dressed in her school uniform and as usual, her short dark haired bob styled hair looked as if she'd only just stepped out of the hairdressers.

Imagine my surprise, to have had Rias declare that she had found a place for Asia and I to live in, only to be dropped off at a very lovely house a mere five minute walk from school. Imagine my further surprise, to have knocked on the door and had it opened by the Student President and for her to look like she had been expecting us.

"Would you like some breakfast?" She asked me, raising an eyebrow and gesturing to the spread of dishes on the table. "I'd prepared enough for everybody."

"I'm not too hungry," I told her, eyeing the various Japanese dishes on the table. I'd learned the names for half of them, mainly the ones I could stomach eating.

"I insist," Sona said, and stared at me for a long moment over the red frame of her glasses.

I took a deep breath through my nostrils and gave her a tight smile. "Alright, since you're so insistent." I walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice.

I took a moment to admire Sona's fridge. It was a fancy new model apparently. Double doored, polished chrome body and even an ice dispenser. Had I been even five feet away from it a few weeks ago, it would have probably exploded in a massive conflagration.

That all changed when I had become a devil. I could actually open a fridge up without worrying that it would burn out. I could even watch television! I could play games. I could go to the movies and sit up the back near the projector instead of having to slum it in the first row and hurt my neck from constantly looking up at the screen.

The ability to watch television had far out weighted the other perks of becoming a devil, like the super speed and night vision by a significant mile.

I poured the juice into a cup and walked back over to the dining room table, a smile on my lips despite the upcoming 'breakfast' that I had to endure.

I stepped over to the dining room table, set my bag down by the side of the chair, and sat down, placing my glass of juice beside my plate. The food had already been served, and in front of me sat a bowl of rice, a small plate of broiled fish, a bowl of fermented soybeans and a rolled omelette.

Asia dropped into the seat opposite Sona's and gave the student president a beaming smile. "It all looks so delicious," She said to the stoic president.

"Thank you, Asia," Sona replied with a tiny smile on her lips. "It is a relief to know that my cooking is appreciated."

I winced slightly at the shot directed at me. "…S'not my fault…" I muttered under my breath quietly.

"I heard that, and yes it is."

I grimaced and gave Sona a sheepish look. "I"m sorry," I said to the dark haired devil.

There were some things I still hadn't gotten used to, crazy devil senses was one of them.

Asia blinked in confusion from the other side of the table, having missed what I had said due to her only being human.

"Where is she?" Sona asked suddenly, looking to Asia. "It is getting late and if we do not begin soon, I will have to leave before we finish eating."

Asia looked like a deer caught in the headlights as Sona looked to her directly. "W-well, she was still getting dressed when I told her it was breakfast," Asia answered, her cheeks tinging a faint pink.

Sona was quiet for a moment as she regarded Asia. "Define getting dressed."

The blush on Asia's face began to spread. "She was ah… naked."

"Was she putting on clothes?"

"Not…exactly."

Sona inhaled deeply through her nose and closed her eyes.

Our other roommate was the only person I knew of, aside from Serafall herself that was capable of getting an honest reaction out of Sona. But, while Serafall was capable of making her flustered, our other roommate seemed to only be capable of infuriating her.

The dark haired devil exhaled through her mouth softly. "I will be back in a few moments," Sona said as she opened her eyes again. She pushed herself out from the table and stood up. "Do not leave before I get back, Harry," she warned me as she turned and went to fetch the absent breakfast attendee.

I glanced over at Asia, whose face was still red with embarrassment. "She was touching herself again, wasn't she?" I asked her, my voice filled with amusement.

Asia's blush intensified and she looked down at the plate in front of her, refusing to make eye contact with me.

I couldn't help but shake my head.

"I said I was coming!" A voice protested from the hallway. "I was just getting dressed!"

A second later Sona reappeared, dragging a third girl by the arm over to the table. "Sit down," Sona commanded, and the new girl flinched, before obeying and sitting down opposite me.

"…Morning," she mumbled and glanced over at Asia and I, her cheeks flushed, though not with embarrassment as Asia's were.

It had taken some getting used to, the idea that it wasn't Raynare looking at me out of those violet eyes, but I had eventually stopped being on perpetual edge around Issei, once I had realized that she wasn't going to snap and try and kill me, at least, unless I actively tried to piss her off.

"Good morning Isebella," I said cheerfully, offering the girl a bright smile.

I received a pouting glare in return for me pleasant greeting. "It's Issei," she muttered under her breath petulantly, giving me a dirty look the moment she thought Sona wasn't looking.

"Is that anyway to talk to a friend?" I said to her, my voice filled with mirth.

"…I hate you," Issei said to me flatly, folding her arms across her chest, or at least attempting to, before realising the circumference of her bust wouldn't allow the action without some strain. She dropped her arms a second later, giving me another dirty look.

"You need to start acting like a proper lady," Sona told Issei firmly as she sat herself back down in her seat. "That means no… inappropriate activities such as that before school, or if at all possible, at all." There was a note of steel in her voice as she said that, and she gave Issei a warning look.

Issei winced and looked down at her plate, but didn't respond.

She didn't need to. In the nine days, since she had begun living with Sona, Asia and I, they'd had this conversation a dozen times over. It always started the same way; with Issei getting caught fondling herself and ended with her being chewed out by Sona for her inappropriate behaviour.

Don't get me wrong. I love tits as much as the next man, but not… as much as Issei did apparently. Though, to be fair, she had an amazing pair of them, even if they weren't originally hers.

It had all started the day after Rias had woken her up. After having had the situation explained to her, she'd been enrolled in school under a pseudonym.

Isebella.

I'd come up with the name after realising how much effort it would have been to get Issei to answer to something completely dissimilar. I'd jokingly tossed it out, having expected a laugh or two, but apparently Rias had been delighted with the novel concept and had convinced Issei to go along with it.

As for why she was living with us, that honour went to her distinct lack of control over her hands at school. It had taken less than a day for her to be sent to the disciplinary office for 'inappropriate behavior', and by the end of the third day she'd been sent another five times.

Sona had been livid with the bad example that a devil was setting for the school.

I wasn't certain who it was between her and Rias who had the genius idea to have Issei move in so she could temper the girl's inhibitions, but somehow I felt it wasn't Rias by how personally Sona had begun to take Issei's inability to control herself.

"Let's enjoy a nice peaceful breakfast," Sona said after a moment, giving both Issei and I a brief look that was far too intimidating for someone of her size, or level of cute.

"…Thank you for the food Sona," I said to her, offering her a smile.

"You're quite welcome," She said in kind as she began to go about eating.

Asia and Issei followed in suit, and I begrudgingly began to as well, starting with the rice and loading it up with bits of everything.

It wasn't that the breakfast was bad, or unpleasant—some parts were, obviously, such as the weird miso soup stuff, but the main complaint I had was simple.

It just wasn't breakfast

Thankfully though, it went by quickly and with a glass or three of water, I even managed to eat everything that had been served before me.

Say what you would about the not-breakfast, but it was definitely filling.

"Thank you for breakfast," Asia said happily after finishing off the last bits of her meal. "It was delicious as always!"

Sona smiled briefly. "Thank you, your words are too kind, Asia." She said bringing a napkin up to her lips and gently dabbing it upon them elegantly. It was at strange surreal moments like that, that I had no problem at all believing that she, like Rias was some sort of Devil Princess.

She caught my look and turned toward me, a perfectly manicured eyebrow raising. "Is there something upon my face still?"

If it had been anyone else in the entire world, I probably wouldn't have even hesitated to mess with them. But Sona wasn't the type of girl to find a little messing around to be funny, and no doubt would express her disapproval at such.

"No, nothing," I said after a moment, offering her a smile. "I was just thinking how proper you were," I paused for a moment and gave a meaningful glance toward Issei. "Especially compared to some."

Issei, having missed the entire exchange, looked up as she noticed that I had glanced at her. "What is it?" She asked.

"You have a bit of…" I pointed at the corner of my lips.

Her eyes widened and she brought her hand up and rubbed the back of it viciously against her mouth. "Is it gone?"

"…Perfect," I said soberly, receiving a appreciative smile in return from the hoodwinked girl.

Sona's lips had set into a faint frown at my indiscretion, but none the less, after a few moments, they formed into the ghost of a smile. "Yes, well, we're getting there," she said reluctantly after a few moments and stood up, beginning to collect the plates from the table.

I rose with her and assisted, piling the plates on top of each other and helping clear the table.

"You do not need to assist, Harry," Sona reminded me as she stepped away from the table, plates in hand.

"You cooked breakfast, it's the least I could do," I said back to her with a smile, following right behind her with my own stack of dishes.

Even if I hadn't particularly enjoyed it, she had gone out of her way to provide breakfast. She was the epitome of a gracious host. It would have made me feel bad to not have offered to help.

Sona placed the plates into the sink and mine quickly followed. She turned on the tap and waved her hand over the sink. In the air beneath her palm, a faint azure magical circle appeared and the water streaming out of the tap leap to life, spasming in the air and surging over the plates, striping all the grime and leftovers from breakfast.

I couldn't help but admire the ease of control that she had over water. She had a control over water magic that I personally would never know. Water just wasn't my thing. I could do little things with it, but compared to the relative ease I felt with fire and force it was lacklustre.

I knew that technically what she was doing was different to my own wizard magic, and that I, if given the time of day could use my demonic power to achieve similar results, but for some reason I didn't want to. I couldn't explain the feeling, or the why.

I went back to the table to collect more plates, only to find Issei and Asia up and getting ready to leave.

Asia smiled as she saw me reappear from the kitchen. "Ready to go, Harry?" she asked me happily.

I shook my head. "I'm going to help Sona finish cleaning before I leave," I told her.

The blonde nun blinked a few times before nodding and giving me a beaming smile. "You're so kind, Harry."

"Aw shucks, you're going to make me blush," I said back to her with a grin, reaching down and collecting a few more plates off the table.

"Come on Asia," Issei called out from the hallway, her head poking around the corner. "Aika said she'd gotten something really cool to show me!" She made eye contact with me briefly and gave me a cheeky I-know-something-you-don't smile. "Bye Harry!"

I maintained a neutral expression at the mention of the strange perverted girl from our class. I had not been surprised in the slightest when I found out that Issei and Aika got along like two peas in a pod.

"R-right!" Asia turned back to me briefly. "I'll see you in class, Harry!" Asia chirped out before chasing after the possessed fallen angel turned reincarnated devil. My face scrunched up just thinking about it.

What had surprised me though, was how well the Issei and Aika got along with Asia. The girls innocent naivety meant a lot of the lewd roundabout references the other two made went right over her head. It was like seeing two particularly horny cats get along with a dove and somehow not attempt to eat and or molest it.

I shook my head, clearing away those thoughts from my head and returned to the kitchen, dropping off the rest of the plates. "Did you want me to do anything else, Sona?" I asked her as I set them down into the now empty sink.

"No, that's quite alright," Sona said to me, casting a glance at me as she once more moved her hand and power-cleaned the dishes with her magic. "Why don't you go catch up with them?" She suggested to me. "I'm almost done and Tsubaki should be here soon."

"Alright, thanks again for breakfast, Sona." I said to her with a smile.

Sona's eyes widened a fraction for a brief moment before going back to normal. "…thank you for having breakfast with us this morning," Sona said to me. "I know you don't particularly enjoy the traditional Japanese breakfast."

Her lips thinned out and she turned to me, "May I confide in you?"

I didn't let my surprise show on my face. "Sure."

She looked to debate internally over what she was about to say for a moment, before she finally spoke. "Between us, it is not one of my preferred ways to start the day, either. But it is customary to adhere to the practices of a country that you are residing in, is it not?"

For the briefest of moments, that I could have sworn I had imagined, I thought that she was looking at me to attempt to dissuade her of the notion. The moment passed and she shook her head slightly. "I'll see you at school, Harry," she said to me and turned back to the dishes, beginning to set them upon the rack one by one.

I took that as my queue to leave. "I'll see you around, Sona," I said to her awkwardly and turned away, quickly making my way out of the kitchen and grabbing my bag as I passed the dining room table.

I slipped my bag over my shoulder and headed out the front door, before breaking out into a light jog to catch up with Issei and Asia. It took me less than a minute to catch up to them and less than another four for us to arrive at school.

The first half of school proceeded as usual and by the end of the last class before lunch I was already over it. The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that Sona had eyes and ears all over campus, and that if I was caught slacking off I was in for a mouthful regarding the privilege that school was, and how wasting my time there was an affront to everything she stood for.

In other words, it was easier to endure the classes, do my best and get high marks rather than face the music when Sona found out I had half-assed it. The music being Sona expressing how disappointed in me she was to her older sister when she appeared.

It'd happened once before.

Once.

I never wanted to experience it again. For how awesome Serafall was, she was utterly terrifying when Sona mentioned her dissatisfaction over my efforts at school. I couldn't remember what had happened exactly, but I couldn't help but give a shudder every time I tried to remember the… displeasure she expressed.

It was entirely possible that I was suppressing the traumatic experience.

Lunch was over far quicker than I would have liked, and before I knew it, the sun had begun its descent and the school day was over.

"You coming to the clubroom, Harry?"

I glanced over to the source of the voice, and found Issei standing a few feet away, her bag already on her shoulder and looking like she was itching to get going.

I gave the dark haired devil a brief smile and shook my head. "You go on ahead, I'll be there soon enough, I need to take care of something first," I said to her.

"Oh, okay." She gave me another pretty smile that made me feel things in places that it shouldn't, considering that I knew who was behind it. She turned away and called out to Asia. "Asia, let's go, Harry said he'll be there eventually."

Asia looked over to Issei from where she was talking with one of the other students who, for the life of me, I couldn't remember the name of. Her eyes flickered to me briefly and I gave a shrug of the shoulder at the question in her gaze.

Asia blinked once at my response, but didn't question it. She nodded to Issei and gave me a wave before leaving with the transgendered girl.

"How can you pass on spending time with a cute girl like Isebella?!"

"Yeah! Have you heard the rumours? She likes groping herself in public!"

I suddenly found myself accosted with the male equivalent to Issei and Aika. Issei's former friends, Baldy and Perverted Glasses, and immediately regretted not taking my chance to leave with the two girls.

I let out a slow and looked up at the two boys that had stepped up to my table. Ever since I had declined their friendship and it became apparent that I was on good terms with who they dubbed 'the most popular girls in school', they'd taken the time to come harass me at some point during the day.

They'd been oddly quiet lately, so I should have expected it.

I regarded the two with a dispassionate look. "You know, she's not really into guys, right?"

They looked like a deer caught in the headlights as realization struck them as hard as the dodge ball I had hurled at them in our last P.E class. "W-what?" Baldy—or Matsuda as he was normally known— stammered.

I took the chance to stand up and begin to make my escape. "Just think about it," I told the duo with a serious look, leaving them to gape in a mixture of devastation and sudden fascination at the suggestion that one of their classmates batted for the other team.

As I left, I realized that I probably should have felt a bit bad for spreading rumours like that about someone who was technically my friend. Should have, being the key words. Issei would probably end up thanking me if it meant a bi-curious student found their way to asking her out.

In fact, if you thought about it, I was doing the girl a favour.

I left the classroom and turned left only to suddenly find myself running face first into a familiar head of crimson hair and blue-green eyes and barely managed to avoid running over her.

One of the downsides of being as tall as I was, aside from the gawking stares of your average student, was that sudden changes in direction, or acceleration, had be liable to take a tumble.

"Hello Harry," Rias Gremory, the devil of both my dreams and nightmares greeted me from less than a foot away.

"Jesus," I swore, and immediately winced as a lance of pain pierced through my temple. "…dick move God," I muttered under my breath, bringing a hand up to my head and rubbing the sudden aching spot.

Rias' lips quirked into an amused smile at my sudden impromptu holy retribution from above. "Hello Harry," Rias repeated, her smile widening a fraction. "How are you today?"

"I'm good, Rias," I answered, giving her a polite smile. "How are you today?"

"Wonderful," she exclaimed, beaming at me happily. "How pleasant of you to ask, are you going to be coming by the clubroom today? I know that you're not technically a member of the Occult Research Club, but I do enjoy it when you stop by, you know? It's almost as if you've been avoiding us."

"I've been busy," I mumbled, averting my gaze from anywhere near hers. The truth was I _had_ been avoiding going there. Rias, Kiba, Koneko and even Akeno—on the very rarest of occasions—were all lovely, but I felt distinctively out of place when I hung around them.

Issei had fit in easily, despite her eccentrics, and they'd begun to properly induct her into the ways of the devils. They'd included me as well in the start, but it I couldn't help but feel like sixth wheel at times.

"With what?" Rias asked, her eyebrows raising up in honest curiosity.

"Well, you know, wizard stuff," I said to her awkwardly.

"Like what?" She asked, her smile widening a fraction and her head tilting to the side ever so slightly.

"It's complicated," I told her, doing my best to hide my discomfort.

She stepped closer to me, and moved to my side, threading her arm through mine gently, trapping my arm between hers and the warmth of her bosom. As she got closer, I couldn't help but notice the lovely fragrance of her rose-scented perfume. It was the same smell she had when she had been in bed naked with me in the first few nights that I had arrived at the Academy.

She set her other hand on the bicep of my arm. "Why don't you take the time to uncomplicate it for me, while we go meet up with everyone else?" She suggested with a beaming smile and gently patted me on the arm, before beginning to drag me off.

I would have tried to free my arm and make a break for it, if doing so wouldn't have been entirely lame and shamed me in front of the various onlooking students. It was entirely that, and not that she, if she wanted, could break my arm like a twig.

"Uncomplicate it," I murmured, my lips setting into a frown as I let Rias escort me from the main school building.

I hadn't technically lied when I had said I'd been busy with 'wizard stuff'. In fact, I'd spent most of my free time the past week in my bedroom talking with Bob over the magical theory involved in creating strong magical foci. I had assumed that I had a pretty good grasp on what was required to get a good result. Bob had disabused me of the notion within half an hour.

I noticed that Rias had a look of expectation on her features, and was patiently waiting for me to 'uncomplicate it'.

"I'm making a staff," I finally relented and told her.

"A magical staff?" Her eyes widened a fraction and took on a hint of excitement. "How fascinating."

"Tedious," I corrected Rias. "It's tedious, and time consuming." I shook my head. "You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff you have to do to make a good one."

"I take it that is the complicated stuff?" Rias asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe," I told her. "For starters you have to pick the right material for the body, and it can't just be any old piece of wood you have lying around, it has to have some significant event to produce something that is capable of channelling magic." My nose crinkled. "I mean, technically you can start from scratch with a blank piece of wood, but then you have to take a few months to properly attune it to conducting magic."

I took a moment to actually think about it. "That can be a good way to start, it allows you to customise the way it handles magic, but at the same time it's a lesser quality than a naturally occurring phenom. I mean, you could always summon lightning and blast a piece of wood with it, but it wouldn't hold the same level of quality as if it was naturally struck during a storm—or even better outside of a storm. That would definitely be best."

I realized after a few seconds that I had begun to ramble, and looked at Rias. Intending to apologize to her, only to find her listening attentively.

"Have you found the appropriate body for your staff?" Rias asked politely.

"Not…exactly," I admitted after a few moments and shook my head. "I found a few lightning struck trees in the woods behind the academy," I admitted. "And a pine needle tree that was grown in the ashes of its mother, but," I screwed up my face. "They weren't right," I said after a moment.

They weren't right for me at all.

Maybe I was just racist against Japanese trees? Stranger things have happened to me. Just the other day I was called a 'giant red-neck yankee thug' by a member of one of the local gangs that I had had the misfortune to run across.

My rebuttal was 'at least my nose wasn't broken'.

The punch line didn't hit him until a few seconds later when I did.

It had been very satisfying.

"Perhaps I can help?" Rias offered. "My family has a large property back in the Underworld, I am certain if given time we could find something suitable there for you."

Did they even have wood in Hell? Wasn't it all fire and brimstone? I decided that the better part of valour in this case was not asking or knowing.

"Thanks, but I think it's something that I need to find for myself," I said to Rias, giving her an apologetic smile. "I don't think I'm going to find what I need here in Japan, or in Hell."

"The Underworld," Rias corrected me patiently. "It's very different from Hell, from what I've heard, I assure you."

"I'll take your word for it," I told her, unable to help raising an eyebrow sceptically.

Soon enough we found ourselves arriving at the old dormitory that the Occult Research Club made it's home in.

"You're not going to run away are you, Harry?" Rias asked, giving me a teasing smile as she finally let go of my arm. I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. I had enjoyed the closeness.

"I'm here, aren't I?" I pointed out dryly. "That has to count for something."

Rias gave me an amused smile and shook her head before she led the way up to the clubroom. She pushed the doors open and entered first.

I briefly considered taking the moment to accidentally lose my way, but in the end, despite how uncomfortable I felt, decided to endure it for the moment. It seemed to mean a lot to Rias to have me there, for some strange reason.

I entered the room after her. In the few days since I'd been there last, it hadn't changed at all. Right down to the other members of the club sitting on the victorian style couches.

On the coffee table between them sat a tray laden with cups, a jug of milk, a pot of tea, and a plate of a variety of biscuits.

"Afternoon," I greeted everyone with a wave of my hand.

"Good afternoon, Harry," Kiba greeted me with a smile from where he sat.

Next to him the diminutive, white haired Koneko sat and glanced at me briefly, not uttering a greeting but none the less acknowledging that I was in fact in the room as she continued to nibble on what looked to be an oreo.

She was a strange one. Not Issei strange, but still strange.

"Oh my, how wonderful to see you again, Harry."

I resisted the urge to groan and affixed a static smile to my lips as I turned to the third member, and Queen of Rias' peerage. "Akeno," I greeted, my voice exuding the enthusiasm I felt. "How've you been?"

The busty dark haired devil-wench sat on the couch opposite Kiba and Koneko, her hands demurely set upon her lap. She was the epitome of poise and grace—and a total bitch.

Akeno gave a faint laugh and continued to smile. "Quite well, I take it from your lack of attendance that you no longer need tutoring?"

I couldn't help but give a wince at that.

I may or may not have lost my cool and said a few expletives to her the last time we had met up for my Japanese tutoring. It also may have been the breaking point for me starting to avoid coming around.

It had just been the two of us around when it happened. Considering I hadn't heard a single peep about it from anyone else, I could only assume that she hadn't told anyone it had happened. Unfortunately that meant that I couldn't take the high road, and if I wanted to continue receiving her help, I would be forced to apologise to her.

I closed my eyes briefly and took a deep, soothing breath. "…I would appreciate some further assistance from you," I said slowly, giving her a weak smile.

Her violet eyes flickered with an inner amusement. "I am of course happy to continue helping," Akeno said to me politely, her lips settling into a pleased smile.

"You're so kind, Akeno," Rias said from beside Akeno, giving the taller and more developed girl an admiring look.

I suddenly realized that there was a face missing from the room. "Where's Issei?" I asked, looking to Kiba.

"She was suddenly called for a contract," Kiba explained with a smile. "She's become rather popular in the last few days." He gestured to the space beside Koneko, who sat in the middle of the couch beside him. "Why don't you have a seat, Harry?"

I gave him a smile of gratitude and did exactly that, dropping down next the young white haired devil beside him and immediately reached for one of the oreos on the tray in the middle of the coffee table.

The moment my fingers came close, a tiny hand reached out and clamped down on my wrist. When I say clamped down, I don't mean figuratively. I mean her fingers dug into my arm almost painfully and stopped my attempt at pilfering the cookies in its tracks.

"Mine," Koneko said quietly, looking up at me, her face expressionless except for a warning in her eyes.

I blinked slowly and regarded the small devil girl with the vice grip on my arm. "Can I have one?" I asked her politely.

"One." She agreed after a moment and released her death grip on my arm.

"Thank you," I said to her with a smile before reaching down and taking one of the cups off the tray and filling it with a small amount of milk. I picked it up along with a single oreo, before dunking it and closing my eyes as I took a mouth-watering bite out of it.

You missed the little things in life sometimes.

A tiny finger prodded at my side. "Why?"

I opened my eyes to find the young devil girl beside me staring at me, her eyes demanding answers. It took me a moment to realize she was asking me why I had dunked my oreo.

"You've never dunked before?" I asked her, surprised.

She shook her head.

"Here," I offered her my teacup.

She regarded it for a moment, looking between the half eaten oreo in her hand and the milk inside, before she finally decided and went for it.

She chewed for a few seconds before swallowing and gave me an odd look, as if asking 'is that it'.

"Philistine," I said, sniffing in disdain. "You just can't appreciate the old classics. Have you at least tried this?" I asked, before casually reaching down and picking up another oreo, before she realized what I was doing.

I twisted the two halves and pulled them a part before devouring the delicious white layer of stuff. I finished off the two sides afterwards and downed it all with the rest of the milk in my teacup.

I looked to Koneko, only to find her giving me an annoyed look. "Wasteful," she told me.

"I ate it all didn't I?" I pointed out with a raised eyebrow before reaching down to steal another one.

She gave a sharp intake of breath through the nose, and I suddenly got the distinct impression that if my fingers did touch another oreo, they were going to be broken by the little girl beside me.

I suddenly noticed that it had gotten very quiet all of a sudden, and as I looked up, I realized that everyone was staring at me. "What?" I said defensively.

Akeno across from me broke out into a faint laugh, bringing a hand up to stifle herself. She was followed by Kiba, who let out an amused chuckle and even Asia who was barely holding back a smile.

I rolled my eyes and gave the white haired girl beside me a pointed look. "Squirt."

Koneko's amber eyes narrowed and she brought a hand up, pointing back at me. "Philistine," she said, her voice firm and tone meaningful.

I held back my retort as I realized that I wasn't going to win a one word debate with her. She had the uncanny ability to convey far too much intent with a single word.

It took me at least five to get to my point across.

"If you're quite finished Harry," Rias said from over by her desk. She had reclined in her chair and had her chin propped up on her palm, a languid, amused smile on her lips as she watched us. "I was hoping to discuss the reason I was so insistent that you accompany me here today."

I found myself looking back at Rias, the levity draining from my features as I suddenly found myself the centre of attention and oblivious as to why it was happening. "What would that reason be?" I asked after a brief moment of collecting myself.

Rias' eyes glimmered in the faint orange glow of the various candles that dotted the room. "I wanted to formally invite you and Asia to the Occult Research Club, of course." She said to me, her lips curving into an amused smile. "While neither of you are a member of my peerage, I speak for everyone when I say that we enjoy having you both around."

I blinked rapidly. "Wait, that's it?" I ask in surprise, before realizing how that sounded. "I mean, I'm flattered, but with that build up, I thought it was going to be something else."

"Like what?" Rias asked, her lips set into an amused smile at my reaction.

"I have no idea," I admitted honestly, before hesitating for a moment. "You said everyone, didn't you?" I couldn't help but glance at Akeno briefly, only to find her posture rather stiff, and her lips set into a rather impressively strained smile.

"You really want me to stick around that badly, Akeno?" I couldn't help but ask her, my lips set into a smile that was in the verge of breaking into a full blown grin, followed by laughter.

Akeno stared at me for a long moment, her expression briefly flickering between the set smile and a grimace. "Nothing… would make me happier, than to constantly have you around," she said to me slowly.

"How can I say no to such a lovely face?"

Beside Akeno, Asia's eyes widened in excitement. "You'll really join?" she exclaimed, her voice full of excitement at the prospect. "T-Then I'll definitely join also!" she declared happily.

The way she phrased it made it sound like her decision to join had hinged on me agreeing to as well. I suddenly couldn't shake the feeling that the 'decision' to invite me hadn't been entirely selfless on Rias' part.

There was a tugging on my sleeve and I was drawn out of my thoughts to find Koneko looking up at me, and holding out another oreo. "For you," she said to me, her voice as quiet as ever.

I couldn't help but stare down at her in surprise. This was the first time she'd actually offered me one of her snacks without me having to steal or otherwise trick her out of it.

My features softened and I couldn't help but smile down at the unusually quiet girl. "Thank you, Koneko," I said to her. "I'll bring you something nice tomorrow, alright?"

For the first time, I watched as the young girl's lips twitched ever so slightly into the barest of smiles, for the briefest of moments. A moment later it was gone and she returned to nibbling on another oreo, though, I noticed that she took the time to separate it and clean off the white stuff on the inside.

I let out a faint laugh and shook my head, a genuine smile on my lips. I couldn't bring myself to be suspicious any more after that, and if I was being honest with myself, I was just looking for another reason to stay away from the strange group of people that I would tentatively consider to be the closest things I had to friends in the entire world.

I felt a sudden rush of nausea as I realized that, despite everything I actually considered Akeno of all people to be something of a friend. I imagined that the sense of sinking unpleasantness in my stomach was what she had felt when she had agreed to let me join their exclusive little club.

For a brief moment I actually felt sympathy for her. Thankfully, it only lasted a second. Any longer and I may have had an existential crisis.

Despite my reservations about it all in the beginning, I found myself smiling and enjoying myself as I spent the rest of the afternoon with Rias and the others. I even enjoyed the backhanded compliments that Akeno threw my way and the ensuing banter that followed between us.

I couldn't help but wonder if the entire thing had been in my head. Had I really spent the last week feeling awkward with them, while they'd all been enjoying my company? It made me feel silly.

A sudden red glow overwhelmed the orange glow of the candles in the club room as the magic circle that had been engraved in the floor came to life.

Issei suddenly appeared in the middle, her eyes closed and her clothes and hair fluttering in an invisible wind that was quick to die down as the glowing circle beneath her faded. Her eyes opened after a moment and I immediately found myself being stared at by familiar violet eyes.

The reincarnated devil's features burst out into a bright beaming smile. "Harry!" she exclaimed in delight and bounced over to me—or rather, skipped, only part of her bounced.

As she got closer, I couldn't help but notice that her clothes were dishevelled. Her corset wasn't fully buttoned up, the ribbon around her neck was undone, as was the top most button of her shirt and more importantly, she had lipstick on, and I didn't mean on her lips.

She stopped beside the couch and without a word threw herself on me.

I found myself suddenly enveloped in a disturbingly feminine and warm hug, my face being pressed into a warm, soft chest that immediately had me teetering on the edge of deep psychological trauma considering who it belonged to.

"You're the most awesome friend ever!" She exclaimed and pulled back, beaming down at me. "If you need anything at all, you just tell me!" she insisted and looked like she was about to hug me again.

"…Oh my." Akeno tittered from the other couch.

It took me a few moments to snap out of a sudden daze that took me. "Not… that I'm not appreciative, Issei, but, what the hell?"

Issei stared at me for a moment in confusion. "What are you talking about? It was you that told everyone that I liked girls right?"

It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about and I couldn't help but groan. Those two perverted bastards. I should of known saying even a single word to them was trouble. Thankfully though, from the look of it she seemed more excited than mortified.

"Yeah, yeah that was me," I admitted after a moment. I hesitated for a moment, before asking. "You're not upset?"

"Are you kidding?" She asked incredulously. "I got summoned to make out with a cute girl! I could kiss you!" She paused for a moment before backtracking. "Which I won't, because you're a guy and I only kiss girls," she reaffirmed for herself.

"That's wonderful Issei!" Rias spoke up, sounding delighted, her lips set in a happy smile. "So you managed to get them to sign a contract?"

Issei froze for a moment and her features shifted into a nervous look. "W-well not exactly." She fidgeted and gave Rias a sheepish smile. "I-I mean she wants me to come back later so maybe then…"

The delight that was on Rias' features melted away after a few seconds and a look of disappointment found its place there instead. "Issei…" Rias sighed and shook her head. "At this rate I'm going to become concerned about your future as a devil if you can't even get a single contract signed."

I could practically see Issei deflating before my eyes. She'd been so excited and up beat when she'd arrived, buzzing in the afterglow of her make out session with her 'client'. I'd had the carpet ripped out from beneath me once before after a killer make out session. It wasn't pleasant.

"If it makes you feel any better, Issei," I said to my suddenly depressed roommate. "I haven't gotten a single contract signed either."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Harry, but isn't that because you refuse to?" Rias pointed out dryly, one of her eyebrows raising up in response.

I shrugged a shoulder. "Doesn't mean it isn't true," I pointed out. "I was just trying to make Issei feel better."

Rias ignored me and instead focused on Issei. She was silent for a few moments and it looked like she was taking the time to choose her next words carefully. "Issei, if you aren't able to successfully create contracts with your clients, you won't be able to realize your dream of a having a harem, you understand this right?"

She spoke it. The dreaded 'H' word. Normally when it is uttered Issei seems to drift off into her only little world. This time however, her complexion drastically paled and a look of utter horror seemed to freeze her features at the mere suggestion that her dream wouldn't come true.

"Though, in this case it may be fortunate that you did not contract your client," Rias admitted. "The sun is still up, and it is considered to be inappropriate to contract a human during the day time."

Rias gave Issei an encouraging smile. "Next time when they summon you, be sure to go through the correct procedure, alright, Issei?"

Issei nodded quickly, her features regaining the pleasant peach complexion that they usually held.

Finally, after dealing with Issei, the crimson haired devil turned her gaze to me. I couldn't help but notice the amusement that found itself on her pretty features. "As for you, Harry. I'm well aware that you haven't even begun to hand out leaflets to enable humans to summon you. Aren't you eager to begin gathering renown for yourself?"

I considered being honest with her for a brief moment. I considered telling her that I had no intentions whatsoever of attempting to contract any mortals to gather power for myself. I may have become a devil, but that didn't mean I wasn't human anymore.

Technically it did, but I still considered myself to be, and I wasn't about to change camps.

Actively attempting to increase my power as a devil by using humans wasn't something I was willing to do yet. Bob had already stressed the dangers of actively using a devils power and I didn't want to chance slipping further down that slope until I was certain I could climb back up.

On a purely theoretically level, I found the whole concept of creating contracts to be very fascinating. There were a lot of levels to the process that I hadn't realized. For starters, in the last few centuries, the devils had begun to develop ways for mortals to contact them—such as the leaflet that had been handed to me prior to my conversion to Devildom.

The reasoning for them adopting the new method was surprisingly simple and ingenious.

With the advent of the last century peoples belief in the supernatural had waned, and with it, the ability to create the proper summoning circles. It wasn't like your average Joe was too interested in contacting the supernatural either. By distributing a method to contact them, not only did they provide a means for it to happen, they also encouraged it.

It had apparently gone hand in hand with the 'Evil Piece' system that allowed them to reincarnate humans as devils. It worked as a sort of ladder climbing system. Get enough contracts under your belt and you jumped up the demonic social ladder. Get high enough and you were granted the right to create your very own little legion of devils.

That was what Issei was apparently banking on. Becoming a High-Class Devil and using the evil pieces that she would receive to create her own personal harem of devil girls. It was definitely an interesting goal to strive for.

But, that wasn't for me.

"Serafall hasn't given me anything to hand out," I pointed out to Rias calmly, "and it's not like missing a few weeks will matter in the long run." I frowned, considering something briefly. "Wouldn't I be cutting into your market share if I started handing out fliers, anyway Rias? The city is only so big, after all."

Rias blinked and fell silent for a brief moment, as if she was surprised by my reasoning. "How thoughtful of you, Harry," She said to me, her lips twitching slightly.

"I try," I said lightly.

"You know," Rias remarked, straightening up in her chair. "Since you're now formally a member of the club, I believe it is appropriate for you to address me as Buchou."

I couldn't help it as my eyebrows raised sceptically. I had thought Kiba was kidding when he had said that she insisted on being referred to specifically as Buchou. "I'm not calling you that, Rias," I said to her as politely as possible.

"Why not?" Rias asked, her eyebrows raising in response. "It is only proper, as you are aware, even if it is only during school time.

"How about a compromise? How does Red Leader sound" I suggested, keeping my face as straight as possible.

Rias' lips slowly morphed into a faint frown. "Are you certain I can't convince you? It would make me very happy if you would."

"No can do, Red Leader," I said to Rias, maintaining my composure.

Rias just stared at me, before she let out a sigh and shook her head. "Very well, Harry. I will relent on it for now."

"Roger, Red Leader," I acknowledged with a serious nod.

Rias ignored me and turned to Asia, offering her a smile. "Asia?"

The blonde nun blinked a few times before realizing what Rias was prompting her for. "Y-Yes, Buchou?" she said politely.

Rias gave Asia a beaming smile. "Wonderful!" she exclaimed, actually looking quite delighted that Asia had responded as she had wanted. "I'm relieved at least one of you is reasonable."

"It's not too late to rescind your offer, Buchou," Akeno said to Rias, her smile as placid as ever.

"I'll forgive Harry this indiscretion," Rias said to Akeno, a vague amusement evident in her words. "I'm certain given enough time he'll come around."

I rolled my eyes but didn't respond. There was no need to continue the conversation. I didn't call Sona 'Student President' so there was no way I'd indulge Rias. If word got back to Sona it was possible that she may end up demanding the same treatment.

"If that's all," I began to say. "I might head back home. I have some stuff I need to take care of."

"Complicated stuff?" Rias teased lightly.

"Complicated stuff," I agreed and moved to stand up. As I did, I noticed a conflicted look upon Asia's face, and realized that she wanted to stay a bit longer with everyone. "Why don't you hang around until Issei comes back?" I suggested to her with an encouraging smile.

"Is that alright?" Asia asked, surprised at the offer apparent on her features.

"Of course," I agreed easily. "It's better that way, anyway, right? I'm just going to be stuck in my room. You'll have much more fun here."

Asia's smile turned grateful and she nodded happily.

"I'll see you all tomorrow," I said, giving Kiba and Koneko a smile. After a brief moment of internal debate, I decided to not be petty and turned to Akeno, intending to wish her a good night.

"I'll escort you out," Akeno said to my surprise, and gracefully stood up with me.

I found myself momentarily at a loss for words at the offer. "Super," I finally said awkwardly. I shook my head and looked to Rias. "I'll see you tomorrow Red Leader."

Rias' lips pressed into a thin line and her eyes narrowed.

I couldn't help but break into a large grin at the irritation she displayed.

"You'll address me appropriately one day," Rias informed me, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I wouldn't ever willingly call her that silly little name she liked. "Sure thing," I agreed and stepped around the couch, making my way to the door. "Eternity's a long time, anything is possible." I said, utterly serious, giving Rias a meaningful look.

I didn't look back as I left the room with Akeno in tow.

The moment the door shut behind us, I burst out into laughter, unable to hold it in any longer. The look of petulant irritation on her face had been too much.

"Was that really necessary?" Akeno asked coolly, folding her arms across her chest as she regarded me with her cool violet gaze.

"No, but it was funny," I answered, sobering up quickly in the face of her stern disapproval and beginning to make my way down the hallway. "I wouldn't expect someone with a sense of humour like a brick to get it."

"No, I understand," Akeno said calmly as we descended the stairs. "Rias extended an olive branch to you, after you've been avoiding her and the club, and you decided to slap her in the face with it."

I couldn't help but frown and take that comment personally. "Just because I refused to call her 'Buchou' doesn't mean—"

"—Yes it does," Akeno interrupted me forcefully, glaring at me angrily. "She went out of her way to invite you to the club to make you feel welcome and you couldn't find enough humility in your entire gigantic body to return the sentiment."

I couldn't help but stare at Akeno, my lips parted in shock at the sheer vehemence she spoke with. Had it been that big of a deal for Rias? She'd taken it in stride and good humour from what I'd seen. I felt it was twice as likely that Akeno was just taking offence at something good natured for the sheer sake of it.

"Look," I said to Akeno as I stepped onto the ground floor. I turned to face her and folded my arms across my chest. "If Rias had a problem with that, she'd have said something." I told her bluntly. "She's a big girl and she doesn't need you to hold her hand in case the big mean boy says she has cooties."

If possible, Akeno's features became even stonier and the cold anger in her violet eyes became almost a physical sensation.

"Look me in the eyes and say that," Akeno said to me slowly and stopped on the last stair. It might just have been my imagination, but I could almost feel a static pressure beginning to fill the air.

"Pass," I said flatly. I had no interest in seeing the festering hellhole that made up whatever constituted for her soul, if she even had one. I'd had my fair share of traumatising experiences seared into my brain from soulgazing Stan as he died.

It took a bit of effort and self-control, but I managed to turn away. I was going to be the bigger man about this and end it before it escalated any further.

Or at least, I tried to. A firm grip wrapped around my arm tightly and stopped me before I could.

"Did I say you could leave?" Akeno practically snarled at me, her fingers tightening around my arm.

I inhaled through my nose deeply and held back from yanking my arm out of her grip. I took a moment to exhale and as calmly and gently as I could, I reached down to her hand and pried her fingers off my arm, turning back to face her.

"I don't make it a habit of hitting women," I told Akeno calmly. "Frankly the thought of it disgusts me. But between that man-grip of yours and your attitude, if you keep up, you and I are going to throw down, and you won't be getting back up."

"Big words, for such a small man." Akeno said, her voice chilly. Her violet eyes were narrowed as she glared at me through her dark bangs. Her head was tilted up ever so slightly, as if she was looking down at me, despite her vertical disadvantage.

My jaw clenched and for the longest moment I found myself worried that I wouldn't be able to hold back from lashing out at her. Humans had two basic instincts in a stressful situation. Fight or Flight, and I was firmly set into the former.

My muscles were strained, tensed and coiled tightly. It was a physical effort to hold myself back. It took me a few moments to realize that what I was feeling wasn't normal. I froze briefly as a sudden clarity hit me. This wasn't productive, and she wasn't worth it, or truly deserving.

I took a deep breath, before exhaling slowly, letting out all the tension I felt. Releasing all the anger that bubbled inside of me that was directed at the girl in front of me.

"I am sorry," I said to her slowly, before falling silent as I carefully chose my next words. "I did not mean to offend you. I will talk to Rias tomorrow and clear up any misunderstanding and apologize to her if I need to. Does that sound alright?"

Akeno's glare slowly faded and downgraded from 'frosty bitch glare' to 'simmering angry bitch glare', before vanishing completely and being replaced with something akin to emotionally drained.

"I expect you to be here tomorrow evening for your Japanese lessons," Akeno told me, her voice steady and barely managing to stay level. "You missed the last two, and if you miss this one, I will track you down and force feed you the textbook."

"Just you try it," I said to her, forcing myself to give her a strained smile. "Good night, Akeno."

"Good night, Harry, have a safe trip home, or don't. I don't care." She told me bluntly, before turning and making her way back up the stairs to the club room.

I turned around and left the dormitory immediately, not bothering to even glance back at her as she ascended the stair case. I shut the large wooden doors behind me and kept walking along the path back to the Academy itself.

I didn't trust myself to even think until I was well away from the building and half way through the school grounds and in plain sight of the few remaining stragglers who had yet to leave the school grounds, despite twilight well underway.

My fists clenched at my side, but I did my best to keep my breathing calm. Words could not express how much that girl infuriated me. You would think after two weeks I'd learn to just ignore her and walk away. Unfortunately it seemed like I was a slow learner when it came to girls, especially ones as deranged as she was.

Despite attempts to clear my head of the anger directed at Akeno, I couldn't. I ended up stomping all the way home, the thoughts brooding inside my head and forming a perpetual scowl upon my lips.

This happened every single time we were left alone. I wasn't arrogant enough to assume I was blameless, but it seemed like every single time it happened, she was the one who kept needling me with what she thought I had said, or done wrong until I snapped and and a vicious cycle began.

Every single time it had been me that had taken a step back and attempted to calm the situation down.

Every. Single. Time.

I was getting sick of being the bigger man. I fully expected the reason that she was so happy to start arguments was that she assumed that I would always be the first to back down. The sheer arrogance that she possessed couldn't be put into mere words. One day very soon she was going to find out the hard way that there was a limit to how much she could push before she got shoved back, hard.

She was seriously beginning to make me hate that little voice inside my head that told me that hurting girls was plain wrong. Clearly the voice hadn't taken into account someone like Akeno existing.

I was so wrapped up in my negative thoughts toward the raven haired devil that I almost walked past the convenience store that laid on the road to Sona's house.

I had a sudden intense craving for chocolate.

A few minutes later I stepped out of the shop with a half-eaten chocolate bar hanging out my mouth and a bag containing bits and pieces in my hand.

To my relief, the chocolate seemed to sooth my agitation and I managed to pull my thoughts away from a certain devil. It didn't do to dwell on the negative, not when I was so close to being ready to craft the prototype magical focus that Bob and I had been developing.

Despite the lack of resources that I had available to me without asking Serafall, I was confident that whatever came out of my efforts was going to be worth it, and it wasn't like I was going to be stuck with the result. If it didn't turn out well it was as simple as going back to the drawing board.

It was another few minutes' walk before I arrived at Sona's. The lights in the house were off. It made sense, it was a rare occasion that Sona got back before I did. Between her obligations as the Student President and managing her own peerage she was always busy.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the only time I really saw her was in the morning and occasionally late at night when she got home if I was still up. I could count on my hands the number of times we'd even spoken in the past week. I couldn't help but start to feel a bit guilty as I remembered that Sona had actually _thanked_ _me_ for having breakfast with her and the others.

I hesitated in entering the house, and after a moment decided that I was going to do something nice for Sona. She'd gone out of her way repeatedly to help me out, despite having made it clear that she wasn't too excited about me being around.

I backtracked to the convenience store and purchased a few extra things using wisdom gained over the last two years from my relationship with Elaine. Sona may not have been my girlfriend, but I was fairly certain a lot of the things Elaine liked were the same things other girls liked. I was banking on it translating to devil girls as well, but then again, devil girls were _weird_.

It took me even less time to get back to Sona's the second time around. I unlocked the front door and stepped inside, flipping the living room and kitchen lights on out of habit more than anything. I really hadn't had any issues seeing in dim light since I'd found myself a devil.

I slipped my shoes off at the door as had been heavily, heavily drilled into my head by Sona after I had walked in the first time and left my shoes on. I didn't dare walk in with my shoes on. If Sona discovered a shoe print that matched my size there would be hell to pay, or at least a very long winded lecture about proper etiquette when visiting Japanese households.

I made my way to the kitchen and unloaded the groceries I had picked up into the fridge and cupboard, careful to squirrel them away behind some other big items so Sona wouldn't notice when she got home.

I'd bought enough for the other two girls as well, though I wasn't entirely sure how much interest Asia would have due to her unique background, or if Issei would even bat an eye, considering she used to be a he, before he died.

I scrunched the plastic bag up that I had carried everything in and tossed it into a waste bin.

I turned and made my way out of the kitchen and stepped into the hallway, not bothering to turn on the hallway light. As I walked along, I suddenly noticed a faint dim light from under the edge of my door, made all the more obvious by the lack of ambient light in the hallway.

My concerns over my roommates were suddenly replaced with a more pressing question; who the hell was in my room?

I crept closer to the door, careful to walk as softly as possible and found that in this particular instance, the lack of shoes had come in handy.

I slowed my breathing and strained my ears to pick up any sounds from beyond the door. I could make out the faintest murmurs that were muffled by the door and couldn't help but frown. Why would anyone even bother to try and steal anything from my room? The only things I had of any value was…

Bob.

My eyes widened as a sudden surge of panic rushed through me. Without hesitation or a second thought, I reached over and yanked the door open.

A girlish cry of surprise met me as I stepped into my room, ready to lay the metaphysical smack down on whoever had been stupid enough to try and steal from me.

I faltered after a foot as I found myself staring at a familiar pink clothed figure holding an equally familiar skull in her hands.

"S-Serafall?" I stammered, my eyes wide in shock at the sight before me.

The Great Satan, Serafall Leviathan, my Lord…Lady? And Master, laid upon my bed. She looked as young, lovely and quirky as ever, with her unique taste in fashion, and her flawless complexion.

A brief look of shock briefly appeared upon her face before her bright blue eyes widened in recognition. "Harry!" she cried out in delight and summarily tossed the Bob the skull aside side without a thought.

A brief surge of panic hit me, and I barely held myself back from diving forward as the skull bounced onto my bed, once, and then twice, and then almost rolled off the edge.

"Be careful with that!" I practically yelped as I moved forward and grabbed it before it could fall to the ground. I let out a faint sigh as I clutched the skull in my hands.

"Why?" The young looking devil on my bed asked curiously, her head tilting to the side.

"Because it's fragile," I said carefully, giving her a brief smile as I stepped over to my desk and set the skull back down on it.

"No it's not," Serafall disagreed easily. "It's pretty much impossible to break that thing without actually getting serious. Believe me, I tried!" she told me helpfully, giving me a beaming smile.

"…Why would you do that?" I couldn't help but stare at the young girl on my bed in muted disbelief.

Serafall continued to lay there on my bed, her blue eyes steady on me. "Because the dumb air spirit inside won't talk to me!" she told me, pouting, kicking her legs in the air in annoyance.

I stared at her some more, dumbfounded. "I…uh…what?"

She twisted upon my bed and pulled herself up into a sitting position, her legs dangling off the bed. The act caused her already short skirt to bunch up slightly. I had to force my eyes to stay focused on her face to avoid looking down at her strawberry-print panties. The fact that I knew what type they were said enough about the level of success that I had.

"The air spirit inside," Serafall repeated, her brow furrowing. "I tried to get it to talk to me, but it didn't say anything." She folded her arms across her chest petulantly and glared at Bob again. "I was going to blow it up and force it to come out, but Sona told me that I shouldn't break other people's property," she explained to me.

"I…" I found myself at a loss for words and after a few seconds of my mind remaining utterly blank and useless, I sighed and looked to where Bob sat on the table. "Bob, you can speak," I said to him.

Immediately the eye sockets burst to life as the orange glow of his eyes took shape. I could practically see them zooming in on Serafall's exposed panties.

Serafall immediately perked up, her blue eyes going wide with excitement and she leaned forward.

"Hello little spirit," Serafall said cheerfully, peering into the skulls eyes.

"A pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Leviathan," Bob said respectfully, or at least as respectfully as he could while he was burning a hole into Satan's crotch with his gaze. "I'm a big fan."

"That's an interesting little shelter you have there," Serafall remarked, lifting a hand up and prodding the skull with her finger. "Until I actually saw it I hadn't even realized you were hanging around my cute little sidekick."

Bob's eyes flickered up from their locked position on Serafall's crotch. "He's been pretty secretive about me," Bob admitted. "I keep telling him to introduce me to cute girls like you and your sister, but he's holding out on me."

Serafall's head tilted ever so slightly to the side. "Now, what are you doing with him? You seem to be an air spirit of intellect. I hope you're not filling his head with anything bad. If you are I'm going to have to make you explode."

Bob's eyes flickered to me again and I could practically see the panic in them, which was a feat in itself considering he didn't actually have eyes. "W-Well," Bob stammered nervously in the face of potential obliteration. "I'm teaching him about magic!" Bob said quickly. "We've been going over the basics of magical focus items over the last week and are about to—"

"Hold it!" Serafall said suddenly, and turned her head toward me, her blue eyes suddenly wide in awe. "…You're making magic wands?" She whispered, before she blinked as a realization hit her and she jumped off my bed. "You're making a magical wand and you didn't invite me?" She set her hands on her hips with an outraged look upon her features.

"He is!" Bob interjected quickly. "I told him to tell you so he could make one for you as well, but he said he didn't want to bother you!"

I looked toward Bob in disbelief at the sudden betrayal.

Serafall stared at me, her lips parted in shock, her eyes wide in disbelief. "H-Harry, how could you! You know how much I love magical girls! I want you to make me a real magic wand!" She said to me firmly. "Right now!"

"I…ah…" I found myself at a loss for words again and it took me a few seconds to recompose myself. "First of all, I'm making a staff, not a wand,."

"But… you can make me a magic wand, can't you?" Serafall pressed on.

"Well, yes, but—"

"Then as your master I command you to make me one!" Serafall declared triumphantly, pulling rank on me.

I gave Bob another dirty look. I'm not certain if it had been his intention from the start, but he'd pushed me into a corner with Serafall and I couldn't see her backing down until she got what she wanted. She was that type of girl, and I imagine, when you're a one of the four Satans, you don't usually take no for an answer.

"I'd love to make you as happy as you made me when you gave me that poster," I told Serafall honestly and pointed at the Star Wars poster on my wall. "Nothing would make me happier but…" I grimaced. "I just don't have the materials to make one that I would be proud to give you," I told her truthfully.

I stepped over to my bed and crouched down, reaching under it and pulling out the box containing the bits and pieces that I had wrangled together to help make my first staff.

I opened it up and showed her the contents.

She peered in and a moment later screwed up her face. "What's this junk?" she asked, reaching in and pulling out a whittling knife.

I gave a faint grimace at the casual way she classified my efforts as 'junk'. "It's for carving runes," I said to Serafall, watching as she dropped the knife back in and pulled out a bag of marbles next. "…Uh, a focus element," I reluctantly admitted, my cheeks going a bit red. "…I can't exactly afford diamonds or rubies," I joked.

Serafall dropped the item back in the box and a thoughtfully frown overtook her lips.

She stood there quietly for a few moments, looking like she was deliberating on something. Suddenly she burst out into a great big smile and looked up at me. "I've decided!" she declared. "Both of us, together, we're going to make us both the best magic wands ever!"

I couldn't help but stare at Serafall in surprise, before I registered what she had said. "I think I'll stick with a staff, actually," I said to her.

Serafall's lips compressed into a thin line.

"You're going to get a magical wand and you're going to like it."

—~—


	11. Chapter 11

—~—

"Alright Bonehead, how do we get started?" Serafall asked cheerfully, turning to Bob and giving the skull a beaming smile.

"…Bonehead?" Bob echoed, his voice strained in distaste. For the briefest moment I thought he was going to say something about the odd, if appropriate, nickname that Serafall had given him, but he seemed to take it in stride.

I guess he didn't feel like being a smart ass to a one of the ruling entities of the devils, even if she looked like a cute preteen who hit puberty with a running start.

"The best thing to do is to find the appropriate material for the body," Bob began to explain to Serafall. The pinpricks of light that made up his eyes moved between Serafall and I. "The most common material to use is wood, due to its malleable organic nature and the variety that is available."

I'd already learned all this over the past week, but I suppose it didn't hurt to give the twin tailed devil some information about what we needed to do.

"Everyone is suited toward a different type of wood. Harry, for example, is a good fit with Spruce. Spruce is the kinda wood that works well with someone with a good sense of humor—or at least someone who thinks they have one. Unfortunately for Harry, Spruce is a difficult wood to work with," The skull continued to explain. "So it's important that we find a tree with good compatibility to avoid issues."

"Wow! That's interesting," Serafall spoke up, her wide blue eyes staring at Bob in fascination. "You're talking without moving your jaw!"

The light that made up Bob's eyes stilled for a moment. "Y-Yes well," he said awkwardly. "You yourself seem to be suited toward—"

"—I want a Cherry Blossom wand!" Serafall declared, interrupting Bob with a happy declaration. "It's flowers are so pretty and pink!" She gushed. "It suits me, right? Right?" She looked between Bob and I for confirmation.

I wanted to speak up and point out that you didn't exactly get to choose what type of materials best suited you and that picking one based on how pretty it was seemed like a bad idea.

"Absolutely!" Bob agreed quickly. "How did you know?"

My eyebrows raised sceptically at Bob's response.

Serafall let out a delighted laugh and did a little spin, clapping her hands in excitement. As she did, Bob glanced me and the lights in his eyes moved right to left quickly, as if he was shaking his head.

"Now, picking the best material for you is step one," Bob continued, speaking up to get Serafall's attention as she did her little spin of joy. "The next step is to find a tree that has the unique properties that make a good magical focus. There are a lot of variables, but it boils down to three things. The age of the material in question, metaphysical significance and attunement to elemental forces."

I found it surreal to see, as Serafall listened to Bob intently, hanging on every word he said. It was a strange contrast to moments before when she had basically been dancing on the spot in excitement. "I see!" She exclaimed, beaming at the skull and nodding seriously. "I understand completely."

"You do?" "You do?" I found myself asking dumbly at the same time as Bob.

"Jinx." "I'm not doing that, Harry."

I scowled and gave the skull an annoyed look. He was such a kill joy sometimes.

"Of course!" Serafall said, puffing her chest out proudly. "Simply put, older is better and if it's got a historical significance it's super and if it's been zapped with lightning or burnt down it's the best!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms out and causing her breasts to bounce in response to the energetic action.

Yet again, I found myself staring at the young-looking devil girl in stark disbelief. How had she gotten all that from his explanation? It'd taken me a small while to understand what Bob had said and I'd been in the wizarding business for a few years.

"…It took Harry a while to understand what I was saying." Bob said and gave me a meaningful look.

"…Shut up." I grumbled and glared at the skull sullenly.

I looked to Serafall who was smiling happily, pleased with having easily decrypted what Bob had said. It shouldn't have surprised me that she did. She was a lot older than she looked, as well as a lot smarter than she looked, but considering she wore a bright pink magical girl costume as her daily wear, that shouldn't have been hard.

Serafall noticed I had been staring at her and looked up to me, a pretty smile upon her lips. "What's wrong Harry?" she asked, sounding genuinely interested.

"Nothing," I said after a moment and offered her a smile. "I was just surprised by how smart you are."

Serafall beamed at me happily at the compliment, and then after a second her brow furrowed and she processed it. "…Wait…surprised?" she repeated and I suddenly found myself on the business end of a finger prodding into my stomach. "Mean! You're a big meanie, Harry!" she pouted and protested. "You shouldn't think bad things about me! I'm your master!"

It took all I had not to burst out into laughter at how utterly adorable she sounded.

She gave me a sullen glare before huffing and turning back to Bob. "What else is there?"

"Well, as you can imagine, finding a tree that has all the right qualities is difficult, but it is also possible to artificially imbue wood with the qualities that are required to make a good staff—or wand—" he corrected himself quickly at Serafall's sudden narrowing of the eyes. "However, that takes time to do. Depending on the quality of wood it can take up to fifty hours over the course of a month to prepare the wood, and that's simply attuning it to the types of energy that you want to use with it."

Serafall's nose crinkled. "I don't want to have to wait!" She protested and huffed. "I guess we'll have to find some really old trees then!" she decided, folding her arms across her bust and nodding seriously to herself.

"Harder than you'd think," I said to her with a grin on my features. She was adorable when she acted so seriously. "I spent a whole day at the library and found nothing."

"Don't you think that's because you can't read Japanese," Bob suggested.

"Shut up Bob," I glared at him briefly.

"Oh!" Serafall suddenly exclaimed, her blue eyes widening. "I forgot! I can just ask Altria!" She laughed and bobbed herself on the head lightly.

"Who?" I asked in surprise, my eyebrows raising to meet my hairline.

Serafall spun to face me, a big grin on her face. "Get ready, Harry!" She said to me. "You're going to meet another member of my peerage. Be on your best behaviour alright? If you give a bad first impression I'll be very sad."

"R-right," I nodded slowly, a frown forming on my lips. Serafall had been rather tight lipped about the rest of her peerage. Well, that wasn't entirely correct, when I had asked her, she had ignored my question and continued to chat about her favourite television show. I had felt it was less of a 'did not want to talk about it' and more of a 'wanted to talk about the show with Milky Milky Spiral…something or other. I hadn't managed to retain the strange jargon that she had thrown at me in rapid sequence.

Serafall lazily lifted her hand up and waved it through the air. I watched in interest as, in front of her, a magic circle appeared in the air. To my surprise, it wasn't red like the one Rias summoned whenever she invoked her power. Instead, it was a very faint, almost white, azure. Not only that, but the design was wildly different as well.

Rias and her peerages invocations of demonic power came in the odd form of a glyph reminiscent of a backwards S. This one however, was strange in that it was composed of multiple geometric shapes overlaid into a complex pattern.

The demonic circle of power hung in the air for a moment, before it began to shimmer, and a second later it was as if the space inside the outermost circle was torn away and I found myself looking through what seemed to be a hole in the air.

"Altria!" Serafall called out into the surreal hole in the air. "Altria I need your assistance!"

There was a moment of stillness in the inky black of the hole, before suddenly, it wasn't so still and wasn't so empty and a room appeared on the other side of the hole.

That should have been surprising enough. I'd heard of, and even attempted long range communication with magic before, that wasn't anything too new to me. What was new, was that what I was seeing wasn't something as simple as a thaumaturgic connection, showing an image. No, I could _see_ through the hole as if I were looking through a window.

She had literally cut open a hole in the fabric of space and time to make a phone call.

I found myself at a loss for words.

On the other side of the magic hole, a young woman in a suit appeared. My first impression of her was that she looked like a no-nonsense type of person. She had high cheek bones, a pair of full lips. Her eyes were a pretty, if intense green colour, and her face was framed by honey blonde hair that, aside from her fringe and bangs had been tied back into a low ponytail.

"Good evening, Mistress. How may I be of assistance?" The blonde haired woman—apparently called Altria—spoke, her voice cool and collected.

"I need your help to find the oldest and most famous Cherry Blossom tree and Spruce tree in the world!" Serafall said, utterly serious.

The woman on the other end of the call blinked once. That was the measure of surprise she gave at the strange request. "If I tell you, Mistress, may I ask what you intend to do with the information?"

"We're making magic wands!" Serafall exclaimed gleefully, and reached over grabbing me and pulling me closer to her. "Altria, meet my cute new Knight Harry! Harry meet Altria, she's my talent agent!"

I suddenly found those intense green eyes settling on me. It lasted a fraction of a second, but I felt as if I was being evaluated before the sensation suddenly vanished. "A pleasure to meet you, Harry. Serafall has told me much about you." Altria, Serafall's apparent talent manager said to me politely.

"Nice to meet you as well, Altria," I said awkwardly, feeling suddenly put on the spotlight. "She's told me… nothing about you," I offered lamely.

The blonde woman's lips twitched up into a brief smile. "I cannot imagine she would have. I am Serafall's talent agent, financial manager, day to day manager, and any other type of manager you would believe that a ruler of the Underworld would require."

I couldn't help but smile briefly at that expanded description of her position. I glanced down at Serafall who had pouted at her words. Somehow I didn't have a hard time believing that at all.

A brief look of contemplation passed over Altria's features and then she added, as an afterthought. "And Queen of her peerage."

If Serafall hadn't told me beforehand that she was contacting a member of her peerage, I may have been stunned by the statement. As it was, I was only mildly surprised. I had no idea what I had expected, but I certainly hadn't expected to meet Serafall's second in command.

"You have a question," Altria stated calmly. "Please ask it, If I am able to answer, I will," she told me politely.

"This is going to sound really stupid," I admitted. "But…were you always so pretty?" I asked lamely and immediately regretted opening my mouth as the room fell silent.

"Pardon?" Altria asked after a moment, her honey blonde eyebrows raising a fraction.

I grimaced. "It's just, every devil I've met has been…really good looking," I said embarrassedly.

"I have not changed physically since I became a devil," Altria said after a brief moment of consideration. "However, I am aware of what you speak of. There are very few devils that are physically unappealing." She regarded me for a moment. "You are concerned that you are ugly and thus are experiencing self-esteem issues." She observed critically.

In that moment I learned something new about Altria, Serafall's Queen. She had absolutely no sense of tact whatsoever and may have as well kicked me in the nuts.

Beside me Serafall gasped in shock at the 'reveal' by Altria. "Harry! Say it isn't so!" she cried out in shock. "Self-esteem issues aren't good at all!" She reached up and gripped my shirt and pulled me down with surprising strength and wrapped her arms around my head, hugging it to her chest tightly. I barely managed to stop from falling forward as she pulled me down to her level and dropped down onto a knee to steady myself.

I suddenly found my face pressed against Serafall's bountiful breasts, and realized, for first time, how thin the material of her outfit was and how soft her breasts were. The realization was quickly followed by another; breathing was hard when your face was buried between the valley of two breasts.

"Mhmph!" I made a sound of protest and attempted to pull my face away, only to find out another truth: Serafall was crazy strong and escape from her loving embrace was impossible.

"Oh Harry!" Serafall cried out, her voice filled with compassion. "You shouldn't think like that at all! You're really really cute you know! Tall and handsome! Dark and sexy! A hot stud!" she exclaimed, tightening her embrace further and cutting off what little remained of my oxygen supply.

"Mistress, please release him." I heard Altria's voice somewhere in the back of my mind. It was fuzzy. I was starting to become a little concerned.

"No!" Serafall said firmly, her voice filled with passion and shook her head and body, jerking me around as she did so. "I'm not letting go until Harry feels better!"

"He won't be able to feel anything if he dies from asphyxiation," Altria pointed out patiently.

I suddenly found myself able to breath again as Serafall's arms disentangled from around my neck and she allowed me to pull away from the death-trap that were her breasts.

"You weren't having trouble breathing, were you Harry?" Serafall asked, concern filling her baby blue eyes.

I gulped down as much air as I could in those first few seconds. "N-No," I managed to get out after a second. "Your compassion just took my breath away," I said, unable to keep my sarcasm out of my voice.

It flew right over her head. "Oh Harry!" She cried out and looked like she was going to embrace me again. I quickly pulled away and stood up, putting my head out of reach.

Through the hole in the air, Altria shook her head softly. "To answer your earlier question, Mistress, the oldest known cherry blossom tree, known as the Miharu Takizakura is located, as the name suggests in Miharu near Fukishima."

I immediately forgot about my brief brush with a breast induced death and stared at the Serafall's Queen in stunned disbelief. How had she known any of that at all? Since Serafall had asked she hadn't stepped away or even looked away.

She continued unbidden. "It was designated as a national treasure of japan roughly seventy years ago. By your interest in it, am I to assume that it is going to be destroyed?"

An affronted look appeared on Serafall's features. "Of course not!" She protested, before hesitating. "I mean, I want to use it to make a magic wand…" she mumbled. "So…Maybe?"

Altria regarded Serafall with a look for a moment before she let out a sigh. "Following on from that, the oldest known spruce tree is located in the Fulufjallet Mountain of the Dalarna province in Sweden. It is known as Old Tjikko."

Altria's gaze drifted from Serafall to me. "To answer your unasked question, I have an eidetic memory and—"

"—and I made her read the Encyclopaedia Britannica!" Serafall boasted and let out a boisterous laugh. "I can ask her anything and she knows the answer!"

On the other side of the portal that hung in the air, Altria gave a soft sigh and shook her head. "If that is all you required, Mistress, then I must remind you that we are scheduled to begin filming again tomorrow morning. Please do not have a late night and be sure to get plenty of rest."

Serafall's face broke out into a brilliant smile. "Of course!" she said happily. "I'll be there bright and early! The show can't go on without the star!"

"By your leave," Altria said politely and actually bowed to Serafall.

"Take it easy Altria!" Serafall chirped and waved her hand.

The outermost circle that had contained the hole in space suddenly vanished and an instant later the hole in space was crushed into nothingness, as if it had never been there, defying physics as I knew it.

I couldn't help but stare at Serafall. That simple wave of her hand had been significantly more complex than any magic I had ever seen before.

"What's wrong Harry?" Serafall asked as she noticed my dazed stare. "Did you need another hug?" She gave me a warm, encouraging smile.

"Not right now," I said quickly and shook myself out of my funk. "I was just really amazed that…" I trailed off "…you have your own television show," I finished.

Serafall's features brightened excitedly and she nodded rapidly. "It's called Magical Levia-tan!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Do you want to come watch me film it tomorrow? I'm certain you'll have fun!"

I grimaced. "I would love to," I said to Serafall, meaning every word. "But I have school tomorrow and I'm pretty sure Sona wouldn't be happy if I skipped it."

Serafall deflated before my very eyes. I'd used the magic words 'Sona wouldn't be happy'. They were her kryptonite.

"…Personally I was more amazed at the spatio-temporal hyperlink that she hand waved into existence." Bob said dryly from the side. "But hey, ugly duckling, you focus on the cool show with the magical girl."

I glanced over at him, suddenly finding myself impressed with the skull, despite his snark. He had constantly insisted that he was an amazing resource for magical knowledge, and to be fair to him it'd been showing in places certainly, but still. To know what she had done was another thing all together. "You know how she did that?" I turned to him, my eyebrows raising up.

"Well, no, not really. I just made the name up. Didn't want to say that she made a 'magic hole in the air'," Bob admitted.

I stared at Bob for a moment. Just like that the increased respect I had for him flat lined. I shook my head and looked to Serafall. "What was that?" I asked her, deciding to just go to the source for the answer.

The blue eyed devil blinked. "Just a little something to make talking with my peerage a bit easier," Serafall said to me lightly. "They're everywhere, so I feel really bad if I can't at least talk to them face to face," she explained to me.

"How did you do it?"

Serafall tilted her head to the side, confusion in her eyes. "What do you mean? I just did it."

"Yeah, but how?" I pressed. "How did you do it?"

"I just did it!" Serafall insisted, pouting at me. "Why are you asking me silly questions, Harry?" She chided me. "We've going on adventure, who has time for that kind of stuff!"

"Yeah Harry," Bob chimed in. "Who has time for silly questions like how to open up rips in the fabric of time and space?"

I gave Bob an annoyed look, but held back on saying something back.

Serafall gave a serious nod. "Exactly! Listen to Bonehead."

I decided at that moment that the better part of valour was not banging my head against a wall. "Okay, fine then." I said. "Let's go get you your magic wand."

Serafall let out a sound that was a mix between a shout of delight and a squeal of pleasure. She bounced upon the soles of her shoes a few times, grinning before she reached over to the desk, and picked up Bob.

"Here, you carry Lazybones." She said to me, thrusting Bob into my hands. "We don't want to come back until our adventure is complete!"

Upon hearing that he would be joining us for our apparent romp around the world, Bob made his displeasure known. "H-Hold it!" He protested as Serafall handed him to me. "I'm allergic to adventure! Put me back! Put me back!" He demanded.

"Sorry, Lazybonehead," I said to Bob, completely unapologetically. "The boss lady has spoken."

Serafall lazily raised a hand into the air and a moment later the ground beneath us was lit up by glowing azure and the world vanished in a blinding flash of white light.

I felt the chill of the wind before anything else. The scent of grass and the faintest aromas of something sweet and floral in the air. As the light faded, I found myself standing on the top of a hill, on a path that stretched up one side, and went down the other. It was overcast, and the world awash with dull hues.

I blinked a few times. "…How did you know where to teleport?" I asked, turning to Serafall. "Didn't she just tell you the name and the general location?"

Serafall shrugged a shoulder. "Because."

"Because?" I repeated slowly.

She gave me a bright smile. "Because because!" She said brightly, giving me a beaming smile.

I shook my head and let out a faint laugh before I took time to actually look around where we had appeared.

I could see a road a hundred yards away, cars racing along, oblivious to our sudden appearance. To our right looked to be a small building with signs about it, no doubt some sort of information spot, considering the gigantic pictures of pink leafed trees around it. On the other side, a few hundred yards away were houses.

As my eyes found the tree, I found myself staring, wide eyed in shock. The sight of the massive tree before me took my breath away. I had seen bigger trees before, but this was something else. Despite being higher up than it, it's massive form loomed, thick branches—each the size of my body—stretching out around it, drooping from the sheer weight of the cloud of pink blossoms that clung to every inch of it.

From the first moment I saw it, I could tell that this tree was barely holding itself up—In fact, it wasn't It was leaning over at an almost forty-five degree angle. I could see dozens of poles beneath the branches, holding them up to stop them from collapsing to the ground, and taking the tree with them.

It was clear that the tree before me was on its last legs, but at the same time, there was something majestic about the ancient thing before me.

"Amazing!" Serafall breathed out. "Look how big it is!" Without another word, she began to walk along the path that lead down to the trunk.

In my hand, Bob let out a low whistle. "That tree's twice as old as I am," He said from my arms.

"How can you tell?" I asked, surprised by the sudden statement from the skull I held.

"It's a spirit thing." Bob answered easily, evading my question, the orange lights in his eyes averting and looking away.

I rolled my eyes and followed Serafall down. As I did, I noticed that there was a large tree line behind us on the ridge of the hill. It was composed of the same manner of tree as the one in front of us. They were all dazzled in pink blossoms, and each one was lovely in its own respect. Yet, when compared to the one before us, I couldn't help but find them lacking. It was like comparing a cat to a lion.

As we came around the side, I noticed that there was a low-level barrier surrounding the tree. It was made up of stone posts linked together by chains. The chains themselves were rusted. The pathway wound itself down the hill, before splitting off and heading toward the front of the tree.

We came to the front of the ancient cherry blossom tree, and found a tiny shrine. It, like the tree, had seen better days. The tiny blue tiles on the top of it were coated in dirt, dust and a number of other things that had been blown onto it. Some had broken off, and others were chipped. The wood was weathered and tinged a faint mossy green, yet, despite that, it looked like it was being taken care of. It was all obviously the original craftsmanship.

I could feel the reverence that the locals had for the tree. That there was no graffiti or broken branches spoke tons.

Without hesitation, Serafall walked right past the shrine and hopped over the barrier, humming to herself as she did.

I blinked slowly as I watched her step through the overgrown grass and approach the trunk of the tree. "Are you really going to break off a branch?" I asked her, surprised.

Serafall spun around, her eyes wide in shock and offence. "Of course not!" She exclaimed. "That would be silly and mean, Harry!"

A wave of relief flooded through me. For a second I thought she was actually going to destroy the tree. It was obviously well loved and long lived icon for the people around her. I can't imagine the offence they'd take if they suddenly found it with a broken off branch that was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm going to take it all!" Serafall answered happily, before gesturing for me to come closer. "Come on! I have to show you how so you can do it with Old thingy!"

"What." I said slowly, staring at her, my eyebrows ascending to my hairline. "What do you mean, take it all?"

Serafall gave an exaggerated sigh and regarded me with those blue eyes. "Harry, come." She said to me firmly, pointing to the ground beside her.

"I'm not a dog," I told her dryly, but none the less did as she asked, stepping closer, and then over the barrier.

"Bob, stay." I said to the skull in my hands as I set it down on one of the concrete posts.

"I'm not a dog either," Bob said grumpily. "Turn me so I can see the tree," He told me, and I did, before wading through the grass to get closer to Serafall.

The scent of the cherry blossoms was stronger than before, and I could feel the long grass brushing against the bottom of my pants. There was a faint sound in the air was the branches above gently swayed in a faint breeze that seemed to roll through.

As I got closer, Serafall carefully moved toward the trunk, and stopped in front of it. She smiled faintly and lifted a hand up, rubbing the tree. The trunk of the tree was covered in a thick layer of bark that was spotted with bumps as far as I could see. There were thick fissures in it that dug deep into the body of the trees, cracked from the sheer weight of it all.

"Now Harry I need you to pay attention to what I'm about to show you." Serafall told me and lifted her other hand, giving me the come hither. "Get up real close," she instructed.

I let out a soft sigh and grimaced. I had no idea what she was going to do, but knowing her, she was going to explode the entire tree and pull out the perfect wand from the remains. I stopped a few feet behind her, towering a few feet over her smaller form.

Serafall glanced up at me, and frowned. "No, get closer," She told me firmly, reaching to my shirt and pulling me closer until I bumped into her. "Hand," She said to me, holding hers out.

I rolled my eyes and offered her my hand, which she grabbed by the wrist and pulled forward, pressing it down over the hand she had laid against the trunk of the tree.

"..This is kind of uncomfortable," I told her awkwardly. I was half bent over and if my hand hadn't been firmly planted over hers, I'd have toppled from the difference in our heights.

Serafall gave an exaggerated sigh and glanced up at me again. "Closer," She said again, her voice firm. "I need to feel you against me."

I took a moment of silence to process what she just said.

"_Pssst_," I heard Bob from down by the shrine stage whisper. "_Pssst, Harry, you're in!_"

I rolled my eyes at Bob's tactless 'whispers'. Thankfully Serafall seemed to ignore them and continued to give me an expectant look.

What the hell, you only live once, right? Or at least, that's what they tell you. I was personally on my second life thanks to the girl that was currently asking me to spoon against her.

Without another word, I dropped down closer to her, kneeling slightly so that our arms were lined up, even if my shoulder was a bit far back.

"Closer."

I leaned down until my chest was pressed against her back.

Serafall let out a disgruntled sound and reached to my free hand, and pulled it around her waist tightly until I was pressed against her back firmly, her delightfully and immorally well shaped butt pressed against my crotch.

"There," Serafall said with a sharp nod. "Don't move," she told me.

"…For the record, I'm uncomfortable with this." I said to her.

No matter how old she actually was, or how big her breasts were, she still had the characteristics of a girl barely into puberty. It was entirely wrong to even think about her that way and made me feel dirty.

"You're my servant, it's only natural that you should do these things with me," Serafall told me firmly.

I found myself at a loss for words as a sudden wave of nausea hit me. Apparently I had severely underestimated and misinterpreted our apparent relationship. "…It's only natural that I _do_ these things from you?" I repeated slowly, my voice strained.

She gave another nod and turned back to the trunk of the ancient cherry blossom tree. "Of course! I know you've been doing this sort of thing with Rias' Queen, but really it should be me showing you the proper way."

Akeno and I had been doing _what_? What the hell had Serafall been told about us? I could barely stand that she-witch and she thought we were doing things like _this_? I made a choking sound at the mere thought of spooning with that crazy bitch, and then frowned. On the other hand… She was pretty, in a sort of way, once you got over what a bitch she was. If she didn't spend half the time we spent in the same room trying to get under my skin…

I found myself picturing it, and to my utter dismay, I couldn't say that the thought displeased me as much as I thought it would have. I blinked a few times as I realized that I had zoned out, and Serafall was still smiling at me. My cheeks burned crimson. "I-w-we haven't been doing this sort of thing!" I blurted out. "Who told you that?" I demanded to know.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Serafall teased me lightly, before her voice became serious again. "Pay close attention to what I'm going to do Harry. I can't explain what I'm doing, so you need to feel it, alright?"

Suddenly, I felt her smaller form exude a sudden spike on energy. It was tightly wrapped and contained, and if I hadn't been touching her as much as I had been, I doubt I'd be able to have sensed it in the air.

"W-wait, you're showing me a _spell_?" I stammered, my eyes widening.

For the fourth time, Serafall glanced back at me, a confused look on her lovely young features. "Of course, what did you think I meant?" she asked curiously, her head tilting ever so slightly.

"Never mind," I said awkwardly. "Just…show me the spell."

Serafall blinked a few times, before her lips morphed into a tiny knowing smile. "Alright," she agreed easily, turning back to the tree. "Pay close attention," she reminded me and began to gather up her demonic power.

I could feel it moving inside of her, pooling up along her arm and flowing out into the trunk. The demonic power that she drew forth and injected spread out, flowing up into the branches of the massive tree, and sinking down into the roots.

Through Serafall I could see and feel every energy-soaked inch of the tree. Despite how overwhelmingly large the trunk and branches of the tree were, to my surprise, the roots were far vaster, spreading out deep into the ground and stretching out far beyond the barrier that kept the tourists out.

I'd learned in biology at my old school that root systems were usually shallow and kept to the first meter or so of soil. That simply wasn't the case here. The roots of this tree went significantly deeper than normal, and the deeper they were, the older the roots were. I could feel it through Serafall, how old and ancient they were compared to the trunk of the tree.

It was almost as if the tree was glowing. It took me a few moments to realize that, in fact, the tree actually was glowing. The trunk had begun to let out a faint azure glow from beneath the bark and it was slowly creeping to the surface and chasing away the shadows that had begun to creep along from the setting of the sun.

Faint motes of light began to appear from the branches and the pink hued blossoms that clung to every inch of the canopy. It wasn't long before the features of the tree were enveloped by the light that it gave off. The amount of demonic power that coursed through the tree in front of us was blinding.

I wasn't exaggerating.

I had to squint to avoid being blinded by the sheer luminosity that it produced and eventually had to shut my eyes completely.

Even though I couldn't see the tree, through Serafall's body, pressed against my front, I could picture it clearly in my mind, the outlining shape of the tree, and the strange changes that were overcoming its entire body. The most obvious I could feel were the outermost roots and branches. They were beginning to draw back into the trunk of the tree, little by little, as if time was rewinding.

As the roots rescinded into the body of the tree, I felt my feet begin to sink into the ground as it became unstable and the earth began to crumble beneath our feet. Still, I held myself against Serafall, fascinated by what I was experiencing through her.

The branches and blossoms of the tree had begun to vanish as well, and even the trunk was beginning to shrink.

There was a faint groaning, followed by a series of heavy thuds around us, one very close by, barely a meter behind.

My eyes snapped open and I jerked my face away from the blinding light of the tree, squinting to make out what had happened.

The poles that had been holding up the heavy branches of the tree had fallen. Without the weight of the tree branches to keep them steady and propped up, they had slipped and fallen to the ground. The one behind us, had it been tilted a bit further would have no doubt brained me where I had been standing.

The world around us was bathed in a bright aqua glow from the demonic energy that Serafall was pushing into the ancient tree. I watched the shadows and the overlays of light as they shifted and moved, the outlines fading in and out as more and more of the cherry blossom tree shrunk down toward her hand.

The earth beneath us became more and more unstable as the root system continued to vanish and another second passed before my foot crunched through the brittle dirt and I found myself slipping away from Serafall, my arms flailing in an effort to keep me steady to no avail.

Even as I fell, I found myself surprised as Serafall, despite the earth literally falling to pieces beneath us, remained in the same spot, her hand pressed against the trunk shrinking tree. She stood there, literally on air, apparently oblivious to the impossibility of what she was doing. The two twin tails that her hair had been tied into began to sway ever so slightly, catching on an updraft that wasn't quite there.

A long shadow that had been cast from Serafall standing between the tree and I had been the only thing that stood figuratively between me and full loss of my eyesight.

It was at that moment, as I landed on my ass, that I found myself uncertain as to whether I should have been more shocked by her apparent disregard for gravity, or that the massive tree that had weighed in the figure of several tons had been reduced to the size of a punching bag and was showing no signs of slowly down.

There was no fanfare or sudden critical moment that signified the end of whatever it had been that Serafall had done. One moment the world had been awash with the brightest of lights and the next, there was darkness.

After a few moments my eyes began to adjust to the sudden shift in lighting and I found myself staring up at Serafall. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on who you asked, I was a bit too low, what with her standing in mid-air and all, and ended up with a rather clear view.

Suffice it to say, Serafall wore white under all that pink.

Serafall took a deep breath in and slowly I watched as she drifted down from where she stood in the air. I found the distracting view vanishing as she got lower, and instead I found myself staring at what she held in her hands.

My first thought was, "That's not a wand," I said bluntly.

Serafall turned around as her feet touched upon the shattered ground and gave me an amused smile as she twirled a long thin rod in her hands. "It's a wand!" she insisted and shoved the top of it in my face. "See? It's got a big star and everything!" she exclaimed, using her other hand to point at the ornate end that was shaped, as she said, like a star, though it also had a ring around it that connected it to the rest of it.

I wasn't sure what I had been expecting when she had started to reduce the massive thousand year old tree. I certainly hadn't been expecting to find her holding several tons of tree in her hand, or for it to be the colour of the cherry blossoms of the… Cherry blossom tree.

Serafall blinked her large blue eyes slowly and her brow furrowed. "What are you doing down there, Harry?" she asked me surprised. "Were you paying attention? If you weren't I'll be very unhappy," she informed me lightly, a cheeky grin appearing on her lips.

"I was," I told her and pushed myself up onto my feet, careful to keep steady despite the lack of real traction. "Until the whole ground fell away part, anyway." I hesitated a moment. "How did you do that, anyway?" I asked. "Standing in the air that is."

She tilted her head to the side adorably. "You mean fly?"

"That was more like hovering, than flying," I pointed out. At the look she gave me though, I quickly agreed with her. "Yes, that."

"You haven't been taught to fly yet?" Serafall's expression changed from annoyance to surprise as her eyebrows rose. "Harry! It's been like a month, you should have learned how to fly by now," she accused me, prodding my chest with the end of her new 'wand' which was actually a rod.

"It's been two weeks," I corrected her politely. "And it's not like I've had a certain someone around to show me how," I pointed out to her, lifting a hand up and pushing the rod away from my chest.

Serafall puffed her cheeks out. "The reason I'm making you go to school is so Sona and Rias can teach you that stuff!" she protested.

"And because it gives you a reason to come around," I pointed out mildly.

"That too," Serafall agreed without a hint of offense. She regarded me for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. "I suppose I should teach you," she mused aloud. "Can you at least manifest your wings?" she asked me curiously.

"I can," I admitted after a brief moment. I'd been experimenting a lot, and not in sexual way that a few of my more gossipy classmates were. I drew my attention inward and focused on a section of the middle of my upper back. There, between the shoulder blades was a bundle of what you could almost consider to be nerves. They weren't natural in origin, and I'd only really begun to notice them a few days after everything had settled down.

There was no physical key to activating them. Originally, no matter how much I shrugged my shoulders or flapped my arms, they had remained inert. I had been too proud to ask anyone else how to do it, but eventually, through trial and a fair bit of error, I managed to manifest a pair of large bat-shaped wings that did absolutely nothing.

That had been the biggest let down since Ewoks.

With a small amount of effort I manifested the wings of darkness that all devils seemed to possess, and immediately the bundle of nerves at the middle of my back came to life, giving me a sudden awareness of the new appendages.

"Good!" Serafall nodded in approval with a smile. "Now, fly!" she insisted, throwing her hands up dramatically.

"If it was that easy I wouldn't have to ask," I told her patiently, smiling despite myself. "How do you do it?" I asked her, gesturing behind her. "You don't have your wings out, but you still did it," I observed.

Serafall's face scrunched up in frustration. "You just…do it," she said firmly.

It occurred to me that she might not have even known how to explain how she did it. I hadn't ever found the courage to ask, but I had begun to suspect that Serafall was a lot older than she looked. Old enough that she'd gotten how she'd learned all the basic stuff and did it on instinct, which meant he wouldn't get any good answers out of her.

Serafall sighed and folded her arms across her chest, her newly 'fashioned' magical rod in her hand. She looked to be deep in thought. "You uhm… kinda…" she trailed off slowly before lifting a hand up to her lips and biting down on a finger.

I decided to help her out. "I've tried pushing my demonic power through them," I told her. "I tried _imagining_ them helping me fly," my face scrunched up. "I tried jumping up into the air and even off a roof top…that didn't work as well as I had expected it to," I admitted awkwardly, reaching up to run my hand over the faint layer of stubble that I had managed to amass since the start of the day.

Serafall's eyes widened and a sudden hit of inspiration seemed to take her. "That's it!" she exclaimed, grinning at me, her arms flailing about briefly. "That's how you fly!"

"What? Jumping off buildings?"

Serafall's enthusiasm died down and she gave me the oddest look, as if she thought that I had hit my head during my brief attempt at mimicking a kids attempt at being superman.

"No, you dummy," Serafall chided me lightly, her lips blossoming into a bright smile "You've got to dodge!"

"Dodge," I repeated slowly, unsure if there was an error in translation or not. "I'm not sure I follow," I admitted to her.

Serafall gave a faint huff and pursed her lips, looking like she was having trouble verbalising what she wanted to explain to me. "You have to dodge," she repeated.

"What? The ground?" I asked dryly, unable to comprehend was what she was asking me to do.

"No, that would be silly," she chided me lightly. "You have to dodge the planet."

It took a few seconds of silence and a look of expectation on her features before it dawned on me that she was being completely and utterly serious.

"Of course," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "That makes perfect sense. The secret to flying is to dodge the entire planet. Why had I never thought of that before? Boy do I feel stupid."

Serafall beamed at me happily, apparently delighted that I understood what she had been trying to explain to me.

I met that look with a bland one of my own and watched as it slowly dawned in those blue eyes of hers, that I was in fact, being completely facetious, and that I did not believe her for a second.

"You're being sarcastic!" Serafall gasped, as if accusing me of witchcraft, disbelief in her eyes at the sheer nerve I had for wielding the forbidden art of sarcasm against her.

I gave her an offended look and brought a hand to my chest, touching upon it as if I had been shocked and offended myself. "How could you even think for one second that I wasn't?"

Her eyes widened, suddenly taken aback by the tone of my response. "I'm sorry Harry," she said to me instantly, looking genuinely apologetic. It lasted a moment before she blinked and she played back my words. "…Hey wait a minute!"

I couldn't help but burst out into a bout of shoulder shaking laughter at the sheer outrage that appeared on her lovely features. My laughter was furthered by her suddenly stomping her foot against the crumbled remains of the ground beneath us, her foot sinking in by inches each time.

"That's not fair!" Serafall protested heatedly and made a sound akin to a growl before she stomped her foot one final time. The world shook around me as her foot impacted the loose dirty beneath her and if I hadn't been sitting, I imagine I would have fallen over as we suddenly found ourselves inside a sudden depression in the earth as the force of her stomp flattened the earth beneath us.

The few wooden support poles that had remained standing suddenly found themselves toppling over at the sudden shift in the ground around us.

"Skull down!" Bob cried out from somewhere behind me, but I paid him no attention.

The first time I had ever met Sona, she had claimed that if her sister got too excited she could literally destroy Japan. For the first time ever, I found myself actually believing her. I could have replicated the feat, true. But it would have actually taken me a physical effort to do so. She'd done it with a slip of restraint and a stomp of the foot.

That sort of power was terrifying.

Serafall glared at me sullenly, her cheeks puffed out childishly. I found myself torn between staring at her in wide eyed shock and looking at crater we suddenly found ourselves inside. A shiver ran through me and I managed to put on a forced smile. "Not a fan of sarcasm I take it?"

Serafall let out a soft sigh and gave me an annoyed look, her hands coming to rest on her hips. "I don't get it," she admitted to me.

I gave her a pitying look.

Those who did not understand sarcasm were the victims of it.

"I can teach you," I told her as I stood up and dusted the dirt from my pants. I held out my hand to her with a smile. "I can educate you in the dark arts, for a price," I told her, my voice holding a grave undertone.

"Really?" Serafall asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Can you?"

"We'll never know unless we try," I informed her, keeping my hand held out to her.

She looked at my hand contemplatively for a long time, before a resolute gleam entered her eye and she nodded. With her free hand she reached over and clasped mine. "I'll have you teach me everything you know!" She declared boastfully, before another grin slipped onto her lips. "But first, let's go to Sweden!" she exclaimed, thrusting the rod in her other hand up into the air with a cheer.

I let out a genuine laugh at her sudden enthusiasm and shook my head. "One second," I told her, and turned around, carefully making my way over to where Bob was, carefully scaling the slope that had appeared from Serafall's earlier stomp.

I found Bob in the dirt by the post where I had left him. He'd been knocked off by the mini-earthquake that had occurred from the 'excitement'.

"Help," Bob's voice came out muffled. He was face down in the dirt and grass. I crouched down and picked him up, turning the skull over in my hand and dusting off the dirt that had caked onto it. "This is unacceptable," Bob grumbled. "Dirt of all things," he protested. "I'm very valuable you know!" he sniffed in disdain. "I shouldn't have to put up with this sort of thing."

I rolled my eyes. "I feel for you Bob, I really do," I told him. "Dirt's just awful, isn't it?"

"Are you making fun of me?" Bob asked suspiciously, the pinpricks of light in his eye sockets flickering over my face, looking for signs of deception.

"No, of course not, why would I do that?" I said to him dryly.

"Because you're a snarky snarkface," Bob told me flatly. He paused for a moment and changed the subject. "That was fascinating," he told me. "Did you see what she did?" He paused again. "Well, even if you did, I doubt you understood it, you're far too uneducated," he informed me.

"For a second I thought you were going to say stupid."

"I was," Bob admitted. "But I wouldn't put it past you to drop me in the dirt again if I did."

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," I told Bob, sniffing in disdain.

"That's because you'd be lying if you did," Bob informed me snootily.

"Oh, hey Bonehead," Serafall smiled as we got closer and she noticed the skull in hands. "Look, I have a new wand!" She exclaimed and poked the Skull with her new 'wand'.

"How cute," Bob said politely. "It really suits you, Miss Satan." I couldn't help but notice how respectful and dignified he sounded when he spoke to Serafall. It was an abrupt change from how he was when we spoke. I shook my head and smiled at Serafall. "Are we ready?"

She gave me a bright smile and nodded before once again lifting her new 'magic wand' into the air. "Let's go!" she exclaimed. Another magic circle erupted beneath us and within seconds it expanded out and swallowed us both.

There was another flash of blinding whiteness, and the next thing I knew, I found myself in the middle of a mountain range. The sung hung high up in the air above s. It looked to be around midday. It occurred to me that the last time Serafall had taken me for a trip around the world, I hadn't quite noticed the sudden shift in time.

However, going from the early evening to midday was a shock to the senses. My eyes stung for a brief moment and I had to squint. They slowly adjusted to the sudden day light and I found myself looking around.

There wasn't a single sign of civilisation as far as I could see. No roads, paths, signs or even tiny buildings in the far off distance. On the other hand, perhaps they were hiding behind the massive swaths of grey clouds that loomed in the distance, covering the view below the other mountain tops.

Despite it being midday, and the sun burning brightly above, it was cold. There was a strong, quick wind that carried over us that brought with it a chill that sank to the bone. It didn't seem to bother Serafall who was smiling happily and taking the time to look around as well. Unfortunately, I wasn't immune to the cold and found myself wrapping my arms around myself.

The mountain top we were on couldn't exactly be called green. There were far too many rocks, and they were all covered with a pale green moss. There were small bushes around us, dispersed and scattered, barely one every few yards. It reminded me of the long stretches of nothingness through Nevada that I had endured as a child following the hotel circuit that my father did across the country—except a lot more moss.

As I breathed in the cold mountain air, I noticed that it had a certain scent to it. It seemed fresh and it stung the nostrils, and yet at the same time there was a certain odor to it that carried on the wind.

It took a while to notice that there was something other than rocks and moss on the mountain top. A dozen yards away stood a single solitary tree. From where I was I estimated that it was just over twice as tall as I was and the trunk was maybe half again as thick as my calf muscles. There were some leaves at the top, but most of the trunk was barren except for a few outlying branches that protruded here and there.

I noticed after a few seconds of staring that the lowest branches were actually bent down and seemed to disappear in the brush around the base of the tree. It took me a few more seconds to realize that the brush around the base of the tree wasn't actually brush. Somehow, the lowest branches of the tree had actually grown down into the ground and around the bottom of the tree. I hadn't noticed at first because it seemed a lot greener than the leaves at the top.

It suddenly dawned on me. "This is the tree?" I blurted out. I looked to Serafall, disbelief evident in my eyes. "Are you kidding me?" I demanded to know.

She shrugged shoulder. "How should I know?" She asked looking as confused as I was. "I mean, it looks pretty old?" she said, peering at the singular tree as she began to walk toward it.

"Are you sure that we're in the right place?" I asked her, an eyebrow raising up but none the less following after her, watching my step as I made my way through the field of rocks and brush. It perplexed me how she seemed so nonchalant about walking through it. All she had on were some thigh-high socks and a pair of high-heels.

"Of course!" Serafall responded instantly, her eyes set on the tree. "That's the tree!" she insisted, pointing toward it. "The oldest spruce tree known to man!" she insisted.

"But it's so small," I uttered, eyeing the tree again. Compared to the massive Cherry blossom that she'd claimed for her own it was positively minuscule.

"It's not the size, Harry!" Serafall insisted, turning upon her heel and facing me with a grin. "It's how you use it!" She declared, thrusting her rod in my face and winking.

Bob burst out into laughter in my hands. "Yes Harry, it's not the size, it's how you use it! Wise words you need to hear, I'd imagine," he chortled.

I blinked slowly, my mind taking a moment to process. "I have no words," I told her, shaking my head. "Let's just get this over with," I said to her and thrust Bob's skull into her hands. "Here."

Serafall blinked and stared down at the skull that had been pushed into her hand. Bob stared back up at her. "Have fun you two," I told them before I trudged my way across the desolate mountain top.

As I walked closer I was careful to step over the rocks that were scattered around. It became even more difficult as I got closer and the thick layer of brush that surrounded the tree had to be navigated. It was almost impossible to cross. The branches were sharp and thorny and would tear apart my pants as well as the skin they protected. I had to circle the tree a few times before I finally noticed a small patch that I could step through that, while tearing my pants, wouldn't result in me needing stitches.

I stepped into it and held back a wince as the sharp branches dug into my legs painfully. I balanced myself and was careful not to stand on any of the branches that dug into the earth. I reached across and carefully pressed my hand against the tree. The bark felt brittle under my fingertips, like the faintest nudge would knock some of it loose. Unlike Serafall's tree, which was five times as wide as she was, it was easy for me to wrap my hand around the front half of the tree trunk and grip it tightly.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I focused myself slowly and began to push away all the distractions. The chill in the air, the brightness of the sun, the air as it stung my nostrils and the stabbing pain of the branches digging into my shins. I blocked it all out and drew my attention inward. I found the source of the demonic energy within me and began to slowly draw upon it.

This was a gentle and slow act, there was no brute force involved. There was no slinging of fire, or thundering blasts of force. As I drew the aura out from within me, I slowly began to pour it through my outstretched arm and into the tree.

Or at least, I tried.

As the first of the energy passed into my hand that clutched the tree, I felt a resistance form that stopped the demonic power dead in its tracks. It was like trying to force play dough through a fly screen. I eased up on the amount of force I was exerting in my attempt to pour my energy into the trunk beneath my fingertips. I exhaled softly and began to slowly feed my aura into it, bit by bit.

It took a few moments, but I could feel the gentler, slower approach working and my aura began to flow through my arm and into it. It was a slow effort, but as the aura began to spread within the cell structure, I eased up the pressure and began to strengthen the amount I was exuding.

I wasn't certain how long it took, but eventually the demonic energy that I was forcing into the tree began to spread beyond the trunk, into the branches above and the root system below.

I slowly began to comprehend the exact shape of the tree as my aura flowed through it. It became an extension of my own self, something I was unable to control, yet very much aware of. As I felt more and more of the tree through my aura, I began to realize that the main body of the tree wasn't in fact that old. I couldn't put what I felt into words, but somehow I knew that the trunk of the tree was barely a few hundred years old.

A far cry from being one of the oldest in the world, and yet, as I began to look deeper and followed it into the earth beneath us, I came to realize that what laid beneath was significantly older and the further and further I followed along, the older and older the roots became. I found myself fascinated as what I felt became older and older.

What I felt and understood humbled me. There were branches on this tree that were older than me. The roots themselves were ancient and even before the human civilization was out of its diapers this tree had already been old. It had seen the rise and fall of civilizations from its lonely, solitary mountain top.

It had been born at end of the last ice age and it had been here for thousands of years.

As I felt more and more of the tree and began to delve deeper into what it was, I came to understand that it was alive. Not quite sentient, but there was a certain presence about it. Perhaps it was simply the age of it, but I found myself reluctant to do what Serafall had done.

Did I really have the right to claim something this old as my own? It had endured for almost ten thousand years and, if left alone, I knew that it would endure until the next ice age began.

It would be a lonely existence, but it was one worthy of praise.

As my aura fully synchronized with the ancient life before me, I came to another conclusion.

That type of life, even for something oblivious to it, wasn't something that could truly be praised. It was an empty existence, pointless and almost insignificant. It was dull and boring. Compared to what I would do with it if it became my focus, what we would experience and what I intended it was nothing.

I felt a thrum of resonance through the tree that caused my hand to tingle. An instinctual understanding hit me.

This tree wanted something more than simply to survive.

It wanted to live.

With my resolve strengthened, I focused my entire will upon the tree. I wasn't quite certain what Serafall had done when she had transformed the thousand year old cherry blossom tree. While she had told me to pay attention to what she was doing, I'd only been able to vaguely comprehend what she had done.

Had she forced it to change? Had she told it what she wanted it to do? Had she coerced it with threats of setting it on fire? I couldn't be certain. But, what I could be certain about, is that both the tree and I wanted the same thing.

I took a deep breath once more and slowly exhaled as I pictured in my mind the perfect focus—or at least tried to. For the life of me, I couldn't get a clear picture of what I wanted. I had thought over it for weeks, even before I had found myself in Japan I had been thinking about how I could make the perfect focus. I had imagined things from utterly plain wands to grandiose staves. None had ever felt quite right, and the tree before me was too different to any of them to reconcile.

After a while, I decided that the first step I needed to take wasn't picturing what it should become, but getting it ready. I began to fuse the energy that I had poured into the tree with each individual cell of the tree. With the branches, the twigs, the leaves, the roots, every single inch that I had come to understand.

I could see through my eyelids a faint white glow as my energy took hold of the tree and began to will the tree to turn in upon itself. The leaves were the first to begin to rescind. They slowly drew back into the twigs and branches until they vanished within the mass and then even the twigs and branches began to draw inward.

My energy took hold of the tree and encouraged the shift in size and nature and before too long even the top of the tree began to shrink down. It was fascinating to behold. It began to take on an almost ethereal quality beyond the glow that it gave as it slowly turned in upon itself and compacted tighter and tighter until it formed into a long smooth shaft.

Despite the features of the tree vanishing, it never quite lost the individual pieces. I could still feel them within the main structure of the shaft of light. Soon, all that remained were the lower branches and the roots that sunk deep into the mountain top. For some strange reason they had resisted being drawn up into the main body, and no matter how much I tried to encourage them, they remained stalwart.

A sudden moment of clarity hit me like a freight train as to why the base of the tree wasn't willing to draw up into the trunk.

The tree wasn't the trunk.

The tree was the roots. They were what had endured ten thousand years.

Realizing that, I focused harder and began to reduce the shaft of the tree downward and encourage it to merge into the roots. I felt as the shaft I grasped onto began to shrink and become smaller and smaller. It wasn't long before the thirteen feet of tree had shrunk and all that remained was what rested below my hand.

It was only once the majority of the trunk had been fed to them that the roots allowed themselves to be manipulated. Even then, I could not directly feed them into the base of my slowly forming staff. Instead, I encouraged them to draw up and wrap around the shaft, sinking into it and compressing along the base.

It took a while, but I felt the ground beneath my feet become unstable and weak as the roots drew back up out of the soil. My feet sunk down into the arid ground beneath them and I began to lose myself in the creation of my new focus. It wasn't until Serafall spoke up and called my name that I realized that I had finished.

"Harry, that's not a wand," Serafall said, her voice sullen, petulant and somehow distant.

I slowly opened my eyes, and found myself looking at what the tree had become.

Serafall was right. It hadn't become a wand.

My first impression, was that it was far too short and far too thick for how minuscule it was. Barely three feet in length from where I held it to where it touched the ground. I lifted it up to get a closer look, only to find resistance. With a frown I gave it a stronger tug and the ground around the base of the staff came apart as the rod drew up, and up, and up and with it my eyebrows.

The bottom half of it had apparently been buried in the ground. By the time I excavated the entire length it had come to a very respectable six feet tall. I couldn't help but grin.

Dirt clung to the bottom half of the staff. Beneath it the wood was a dark colour, more basalt than wood. I ran my fingers over the length of it and noticed that it had the rough texture of stone. Every foot or so there was an extruded band that tapered down along to the base.

Unlike Serafall's it wasn't ornate. There were really no truly outstanding features that you could take note of. It was something of utility, not beauty, and yet somehow I felt it was perfect. Whether it was because of how compatible I had been with the tree that it had been, or because I had made it an extension of myself, I couldn't quite tell, but it felt right to me.

A tiny finger prodded against my side and I found Serafall standing beside me, a pout upon her features. "Harry," she repeated. "It's not a wand. I wanted you to have a wand!" she insisted.

I gave her a small smile, my new focus grasped in my hand. "It's a very manly wand," I reassured her. "You wouldn't want me to have a girly wand, would you?" I asked her.

She hesitated a moment, her blue eyes flickering between the dirt covered staff in my hand and my face. "Well, no," she admitted reluctantly.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Then mission accomplished, wouldn't you say?" After a moment I turned my attention back to my staff and admired it. "Ten thousand years old," I told her, a hint of pride in my voice.

My masters eyes widened in shock. "Wow!" she exclaimed. "It's super ancient!" she leaned forward and peered at it in fascination.

I couldn't help but smile in amusement as she got closer and even reached to it, prodding it with a finger.

Her nose crinkled as she got a bit of dirt on her fingers and she shook her hand, flicking it off.

I felt an odd peace within myself as I stood there, sun overheat, the air freezing cold, and my new focus in my grasp.

"Say," I asked suddenly. "Could you take me home," I hesitated a moment. "Levia-tan?" I used her nickname with an encouraging smile.

She blinked and glanced up at me, her lips quirking into a pleased smile. "You want to go back already?" she teased me lightly. "But we're just getting started! Right Bonehead?"

"Right," Bob agreed without hesitation. "Anything you say Boss."

"Actually," I spoke up. "I meant my home back in America. I was hoping you could take me back for a bit."

—~—


End file.
